Swordfish with Portuguese Sauce

At Whole Foods yesterday, I was browsing the fish counter.  To my delight, they were featuring Atlantic swordfish, which the seafood manager informed me is now being sustainably harvested. So we can, within reason, occasionally enjoy this delicious fish again. My husband and I used to enjoy this about once a week in our pre-kid days—and then we stopped eating swordfish altogether when it became over fished and we started to worry about mercury build up.

I came home and dug out one of our old favorite swordfish preparations.  This recipe is one that I adapted from Emeril Lagasse.   If you like Emeril recipes, I hope you’ll understand and forgive that I have reduced the number of ingredients and drastically cut the butter called for in the original.  Sorry to play with a masterwork, but we have arteries to think of.   This is really delicious anytime of year, but is especially nice on a summer night.  The swordfish was a bit on the pricey side, but I justified the expense by serving it with only a simple green salad.  It was just as good as I remember.

Swordfish with Portuguese Sauce

Serves 4

4 swordfish steaks (about 5 to 6 ounces each, 1 ½ inches thick)
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1 ½ cups Portuguese Sauce  (see below)
¼ cup chopped green onions

Rub the swordfish steaks all over with the Creole seasoning.  Grill the steaks on a medium hot grill until nicely firm and medium rare; on our grill this is about 5 minutes on each side.  (If you’d rather stay indoors, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a skillet and gently saute them over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes per side instead.)  Place a steak on each plate and top with some of the Portuguese sauce and sprinkle about a tablespoon of the green onions on each one.

To make the Portuguese Sauce:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 medium firm tomatoes, peeled and chopped
12 Kalamata or other black olive pitted and halved
12 sliced pimento-stuffed green olives
4 anchovy fillets, minced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (or parsley or oregano)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon unsalted butter


Heat the oil in a skillet over medium high heat.  Add the onions and sauté until they wilt just a little.  Add the garlic, tomatoes, olives, anchovy, and basil.  Bring the mixture to a boil and then lower the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes until there is just a little liquid left and the tomatoes have softened.  Taste and season with salt and pepper, add the butter, remove from the heat and stir until the butter is fully incorporated.  (You can make this sauce ahead but don’t add the butter.  When you reheat it, add in the butter)

Related Posts with Thumbnails
This entry was posted in Fish, Main Course and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *