Roast Salmon and Fregola

What the heck?  Fregola?  Super cute and tasty (cuteness in food is important, no?) - fregola is a type of pasta from Sardinia.  It is semolina dough that has been rolled into teeny, tiny little pasta balls and then toasted in the oven.  It looks similar to Israeli couscous.  Here's what it looks like uncooked:

You basically cook it in boiling water - like rice.  I did mine a bit like risotto - where I kept adding stock and stirring, I didn't want any liquid left, and I didn't want it to burn on the bottom.  Like many Italian ingredients I pick up at Eataly - the cooking instructions are less than helpful.  The package said to boil in water for 20 minutes.  How much fregola?  How much water?  How high of a boil?  Holy moley.  So I improvised.  Also, I wanted to flavor my fregola so it would go nicely with my roast salmon.  I took a standard risotto approach... saute minced onion and garlic, add the grain, then add a little liquid at a time until cooked.  I thought I would do an herby lemon-mustard glaze on the salmon and serve it on a bed of sauted swiss chard.   I sliced up my chard into 1/2 ribbons and sauted lightly with garlic and then did a quick steam with a splash of chicken stock.  I love fish with a wilted or braised green - sort of becomes a healthy sauce.  Healthy and delish, here's how it looks and how to make it!

Roast Salmon with Fregola
1 cup fregola
2 servings of salmon
1 lemon, juiced
1 spoonful course, whole grain mustard
squeeze of honey
sprigs of parsely, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 small onion, minced
1 bunch rainbow swiss chard, cut into 1/2 inch ribbons
couple of cups chicken stock
couple of cups of water
oil
salt
pep

Fregola:
Get a sauce pan over medium heat with a small glug of olive oil.  Pop in on clove of minced garlic and the onion.  Saute until softened about 2 minutes.  Pour in your fregola and swirl around until coated with oil/garlic/onion.  Pour in about 1/2 a cup of chicken stock every 5 minutes for 20 minutes.  I decided it need another 5 minutes - so I added another cup of water.  Once finished, annoint with a drizzle of olive oil and some fresh parsley. 

Swiss Chard:
Get a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Pour in enough oil to lightly coat the bottom and put in the remaining clove of garlic.  Saute for 1 minute and then drop in your chard.  Saute for a minute then pour in a glug of chicken stock and pop the lid on to steam for a couple of minutes.  Hold over low heat.

Fish:
Put your oven on 400 deezgreez.  Mix up the mustard, honey, lemon juice and some parsley.  Paint your lovely marinade over the fillets and pop them into the oven for 4 minutes.  Then turn on the broiler, and finish under the broiler for another couple of minutes.  What it closely so it doesn't BURN!  I like to finish it under the boiler to really brown the top.  The marinade is thick - so the broiler won't scorch it.  Remember the poke test - you want your salmon just cooked through - just barely firm all the way through.  The poke test should be a medium tension on your fist (when you poke your left hand, while clenched to medium tension, on the fleshy part of your fist between the thumb and index knuckle.)  Serve the fish on a bed of the chard along side the fregola, garnish with parsley if you have any left.  ENJOY!