Pan-Seared Creamy Tuscan Salmon with Garlic, Spinach, Artichokes, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, and Capers. This recipe features the best white cream sauce for salmon! Ready in 30 minutes!
If you're looking for a family-friendly dinner recipe to make tender and flaky salmon, look no further. This one-pan meal will surely become one of your favorite weeknight dinners! Pan-seared Tuscan salmon is generously coated in a creamy garlic sauce with sun-dried tomatoes and other veggies.
Crispy and crunchy on the outside, the salmon is moist and tender on the inside. This recipe features the same vegetables I used for fusilli pasta not long ago.
Serve creamy Tuscan salmon with roasted or steamed vegetables, pasta, or with Italian ravioli. Buy ravioli in the store and dress them up according to my recipe!
Why make Tuscan salmon
- One-pan meal. Use a large skillet or frying pan. Stainless steel, cast iron, or non-stick. The salmon is pan seared to perfection until crispy and flaky. Then, the creamy garlic sauce is made in the same pan.
- Ready in 30 minutes. Perfect recipe for a family weeknight dinner!
- Tuscan flavors. Sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, garlic, artichokes, and capers taste delicious in a white cream sauce.
Helpful tips for searing salmon
- Do not remove the skin. The skin will help salmon fillet retain its shape while you sear it. It will also protect it from overcooking. Also, when the salmon is completely cooked, you can slide the fork between the salmon fillet and the skin to remove the skin. It's much easier to remove the skin once the salmon is cooked!
- Pat dry salmon with paper towels before searing.
- Season the salmon with salt right before searing.
- Sear the salmon flesh side down first (skin side up). This will create a nice crust over the top of the salmon. Make sure the skillet is hot and the olive oil rolls easily around the skillet (without burning).
- How long to sear salmon? Sear salmon about 4 minutes on each side, until it's cooked through and flaky.
White Cream Sauce for Salmon
Creamy garlic sauce is made with heavy cream and minced garlic. Sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, and capers add flavor and texture. The cream sauce is super flavorful, and it also keeps the salmon fillets tender and moist on the inside.
How to make Tuscan salmon
1) First, sear salmon fillets in olive oil in a large skillet.
2) Remove the salmon from the skillet.
3) Next, cook the vegetables. Add minced garlic and chopped sun-dried tomatoes to the skillet.
4) Add chopped artichoke hearts and drained capers. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
5) Then, add fresh spinach.
6) Cook for a couple of minutes, until the spinach wilts.
7) Add 1 cup of heavy cream and paprika. Bring to simmer. Simmer for about 1 minute, stirring. Season with salt and more paprika, if you like.
8) Add cooked salmon to the skillet with the cream sauce. Spoon the sauce over the salmon, and simmer for a minute or more, until the salmon is warmed up and cooked through.
What to serve with creamy Tuscan salmon
- Pasta. Because Tuscan salmon features creamy sauce, it's best to serve it with some carbs. Serve angel hair pasta, spaghetti, penne, or ziti pasta.
- Spaghetti squash. Roast spaghetti squash in the oven and scrape out the spaghetti squash strands with the fork.
- Roasted vegetables. Green vegetables will be amazing with the creamy and flaky Tuscan salmon. Make roasted asparagus, oven-roasted broccoli, garlic green beans with bacon, or cooked spinach.
Other salmon recipes
Salmon is a great source of protein. It's always handy to have a good salmon recipe to make for a family dinner. Here are some of my favorites:
Other Italian recipes
Italian-inspired recipes usually revolve around pasta, as well as meat served with lots of vegetables. If you enjoy Italian cuisine, you might like these weeknight dinner recipes:
- Creamy Farfalle (Bow-Tie Pasta) with Spinach, Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions
- Linguine with Spinach and Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce
- Mushroom Ravioli with Spinach
- Baked Italian Chicken with Vegetables
- Mediterranean Chicken with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Artichokes, and Capers
Creamy Tuscan Salmon with Spinach, Artichokes, and Garlic
Ingredients
Salmon
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 lb salmon fillets (3 or 4 salmon fillets)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
White cream sauce
- 3 cloves garlic , minced
- ¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes , chopped
- 1 cup artichoke hearts , chopped
- 2 tablespoons capers , drained
- 5 oz spinach fresh
- 1 cup heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon paprika
- salt
Instructions
How to sear salmon
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat.
- Season salmon fillets with salt.
- When the oil is hot, add salmon fillets flesh side down (skin side up). Sear for about 4 minutes on medium-high heat.
- Reduce heat to medium.
- Flip the salmon fillets to the other side (skin side down). Sear for another 4 or 5 minutes on medium heat until salmon is flaky.
- Remove salmon from the skillet.
How to make white cream sauce
- To the same, now empty, skillet, add chopped sun-dried tomatoes, minced garlic, chopped artichokes, capers. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
- Add fresh spinach, and continue cooking and stirring until the spinach wilts, for a couple of minutes.
- To the skillet with sautéed vegetables, add 1 cup of heavy cream and paprika. Bring to simmer. Simmer for about 1 minute, stirring. Season with salt. Add more paprika, if you like.
Assembly
- Add cooked salmon to the skillet with the cream sauce.
- Spoon the sauce over the salmon, and simmer for a minute or more, until the salmon is warmed up and cooked through. The salmon should be flaky.
- Season with salt, if needed.
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Delicious. I will make this again.
Lisa, I am glad you will make this again - that's the best compliment!
I noticed the sodium was high, if I left out the capers..would it change the recipe?
You can safely omit the capers - it won't change the recipe flavor by much at all. The vast majority of the flavor comes from other ingredients.
My son is lactose intolerant so I made this with cashew cream sauce and it was truly delightful!! This is a keeper recipe! Thanks for sharing
I love cashew cream sauce - what a delicious substitution for regular cream!
Thank you for the cashew cream idea! We are dairy free, so this was very helpful! Can’t wait to try it!
Yes, cashew cream is a great idea! Also, coconut milk will work, too!
This is the best salmon recipe I have ever made.... and I am a great cook !!!! Bravo Julia !!!!!
Your comment made my day! Glad you enjoyed this recipe! 🙂
So delicious and easy! Also works with some zoodles for a low-carb meal!
I made this recipe with cooked spinach. It was delicious . Make it again today.
I wanted to try this recipe so much, but the ads are ridiculous and make it impossible to view content. I won’t be visiting again.
I tried this recipe for the first time about 2 months ago....amazing! I’m normally hopeless in yhe kitchen but I was told the meal was “restaurant standard” Delighted!! You should persevere through the ads
I made this with a few changes. First I followed the fresh salmon. I flipped this out of.the pan, and kept it in alufoil.
Then I used oniun, 1 bell peper, fennel and stirfried it almost ready, some fresh little tomatoest, then I used the other ingredients as garlic, kapers and sundried tomatoes.
The spinache and cream. It was delicious and more than enough.
Your recipe wasn’t anything like the original.
I love an easy recipe!, this was really good. I used ling instead of salmon. Yummm thank you.
Absolutely yummy! I do cook the salmon in foil in the Aga as don't like smell of fried fish in the kitchen, but that's just me! Greetings from UK.