Pan-fried tilapia with almond-parsley pesto

So I am lurking around my favorite food blogs the other day, and I come across a recipe for pesto with almonds and parsley on Orangette.

A winter pesto, she suggests. She's in Seattle where the flat-leaf parsley is still going strong in her backyard. I'm in Albany, NY where even with a recent bout of balmy weather the only green things in my backyard are little foolish patches of grass. And while I've been known to make pesto out of just about anything you can stick in a food processor, I'm not quite desperate enough (yet) to start in on the lawn clippings. Maybe in March.

But it sounded so good. And parsley doesn't have the full-blown round summer sweetness of fresh basil, which somehow seems out of place on these bitter days. If there were an herb that would grow here during the winter, I am sure it would be parsley.

So I gave it a shot. I didn't measure anything, but I basically doubled everything in her recipe. I threw the cheese right into the mix following the basic calculation for feeding children: For every degree of difficulty the food may pose to your children add two tablespoons Parmesan cheese.

I wasn't sure the munchkins would like the pan-fried tilapia, so in went several scoops of cheese. It seemed to work. Even my son liked it, and fish isn't his favorite thing.

For the fish I soaked it in salt water for 45 minutes and then patted it dry. Then I just coated a non-stick pan with olive oil and let it heat until the oil became fragrant. Kosher salt and pepper on the fish and into the frying pan on medium high. I let it fry gently until the bottom was golden. Then flip and brown the other side. About five minutes on each side.

Arrange on platter and top with the pesto. I served it with brown rice and zucchini sautéed with lemon pepper and mushrooms.

Assuming you have the ingredients, this is a great after-work meal. The whole thing, besides soaking the fish, took under 20 minutes. It would be even easier if you make the pesto the night before. (I add this because I am sure there are people out there who do such things.)