There are just some days you don’t know what to do for dinner. You have lots of wonderful ingredients but for some reason you just can’t piece it together. Then, Baby Lady calls and says she wants a green couscous as part of dinner. What do you do????? Well, in this case, something completely different. 😮 Glad she liked it but she’s still complaining about the lack of couscous. 🙂
Have you ever had one of those days when nothing seemed to be on the same page? This was one of those meals. We had a basket full of beautiful ingredients that we jointly selected. There was no rhyme or reason for the selection other than it was the best looking, freshest ingredients that suited our fancy at the time. Then we got busy with everything but food. Hmmm…I hate it when that happens. I get a call late in the afternoon the following day that goes something like this:
Baby Lady: Hi Sweetie Man (she calls me “sweetie man,” aint that cute?)
Sweetie Man (you have to stay in character): Not much, Baby, just workin’.
Baby Lady: What do you want for dinner?
Sweetie Man: I dunno. Been a busy day. We have some nice, fresh swordfish we just bought from the market. I was thinking about cooking that.
Baby Lady: I think I want to make some couscous. Do we have some cilantro?
Sweetie Man: Yes. Are you thinking about a green couscous?
Baby Lady: Un-huh. Is that okay?
Sweetie Man: Sure Baby. Anything you want….
When Baby Lady finally comes home, I have no idea what happened but cilantro based green couscous morphed into a Mediterranean inspired pasta. 😮 It’s like I was possessed. I could no longer control myself. Somehow, someway, green couscous turned into sun-dried tomatoes, with chile marinated green olives, sliced onions and garlic mixed with linguini. I’m glad she enjoys a wide variety of food and is forgiving. This was really good. 😀
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb linguini
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 Spanish white onion, thinly sliced
- 3 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup pitted chile marinated olives, thick slice
- 2 Tbsp capers in sherry
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 2 swordfish steaks, 6 oz each
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped for garnish
Instruction
Before you start, bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil for the linguini.
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large heavy bottom skillet (preferably cast iron) and add onion and garlic.
Once you add the onions and garlic to the skillet, add the pasta to the boiling water and let water return to a boil. By the time everything else is done, the pasta should be ready.
Cook the onions and garlic, stirring frequently, until the onions have turned a light golden brown, roughly 3 – 4 minutes.
Remove from heat and add sun-dried tomatoes, olives, capers and wine.
Stir together to incorporate and transfer to bowl.
Season swordfish with salt and pepper.
Add 1 – 2 Tbsp oil to the same skillet used for the vegetables and add swordfish to the skillet.
Return skillet to medium-high heat, and cook for 2 – 3 minutes and turn.
Cook another 2 – 3 minutes depending upon how done you like your swordfish. Now, if you have timed this correctly, by the time the swordfish is done the way you like it, the linguini should also be cooked, roughly 10 – 12 minutes.
Remove pasta from water to a bowl and add the vegetables.
Toss to incorporate. The residual heat of the pasta will reheat the vegetables. Place the pasta on a plate.
Place a swordfish steak on top of the pasta.
Sprinkle with chopped basil.
Serve & enjoy
REMCooks 
Nice background, delicious dish
Thanks for dropping by and the very nice compliment. Hope to see you around. 🙂
Richard, oh my goodness! this dish looks absolutely delicious! Glad you got creative and something else took over and made you create this! Just fantastic and looks soooo good!
Thanks, Alice. We really enjoyed it. 🙂
Wow this looks amazing definitely going to attempt this. Yum!
Thanks for the nice compliment, Christina. It’s a wonderfully flavored pasta and we love swordfish. If you try it let us know what you think. 🙂
This is one fantastic meal, Richard. Now that the good tomatoes have vanished until next year, I do as you did here and often use sun-dried in their stead. Here they’d provide the perfect counter-point to the olives and capers. This is so my kind of pasta dish. 🙂
Thanks, John. We always enjoy sun-dried tomatoes. We use them in pestos, sandwiches, salads, pastas, you name it. We love the sweet earthiness they provide a dish and you are so right insofar as they provide a perfect counter-point to the olives and capers.
It looks great, Richard. I’ve never seen this with sundried tomatoes before, but I agree with John that’s a good idea. In Italy the swordfish would be served as a seperate course after the pasta and be called “Pesce spada alla siciliana”. Sounds nice doesn’t it?
Hi, Stefan. Thanks for the compliment. The sun-dried tomatoes provide a nice touch for this dish. 🙂 Sicilian swordfish, eh? You’re right. It sounds much better in Italian. 😉
Excellent looking swordfish. You like yours cooked just the same way I do. The strong fish would be excellent with the pasta and other ingredients.
Best,
Conor
Thanks, Conor. Swordfish is such a nice fish and it did pair beautifully with the pasta sun-dried tomatoes, olives and capers.
I love capers, and sun-dried tomatoes, and olives, and swordfish 🙂
I make a similar dish with shrimp but use diced tomatoes instead of sun dried tomatoes. Olives and capers go so well with seafood.
Hi, Karen. I agree that olives and capers go beautifully with seafood. It’s hard to go wrong with any combination of tomatoes, olives, capers and seafood.
Looks delicious!
Thanks, Ruby. It was very, very good, indeed!. 🙂
You’re quite welcome 🙂
I just want to grab the utensils and eat the swordfish and linguini.
Thanks, We’re glad you like it!. 🙂
Beautiful dish and that crust looks amazingly yummy! I love the idea of light, Mediterranean linguine and the green cilantro, both are equally yum in my opinion. I think I might need to retrain my sweetheart and show him what blokes on the other side of the world for their loved ones, lol!
Thanks, Alice. 🙂 Baby Lady is still asking me what happened to the couscous. 😮