What do I do when fresh, wild caught mahi mahi goes on sale for $3.97/lb?  The happy dance!  In my mind, anyway.  I don’t really dance…just ask Eric.

Sunflower Market had the sale last week (thanks to Carrie for pointing that out!) and I bought a pound of mahi mahi.  I decided to try this recipe from allrecipes.com.  As usual, I ended up tweaking it so much that I can’t really say I used the recipe.  But the end result was delicious.  Here’s what I ended up doing:

Mahi Mahi with Roasted Pepper Sauce & Pecan Pesto

1/3 c. white wine

1/2 onion, chopped

2 T. grated parmesan cheese

1 small clove garlic

1/3 c. pecan pieces

1 T. olive oil

1/4 c. packed fresh cilantro

1 c. roasted red peppers (I used the jarred kind)

1 T. butter

1 tsp. sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

1 lb mahi mahi

2 T. cooking oil (I used grapeseed…love that stuff!  But that’s a blog post of its own…)

salt and pepper to taste

• Place the wine and chopped onion in a saucepan over medium heat.  Bring to boil, then lower heat to medium-low and reduce the liquid down by about one half.  Remove from heat and set aside.
• To make the pesto, place parmesan, garlic, pecans, olive oil and cilantro in food processor; process until nearly smooth.  Remove from food processor and set aside.
• To make the pepper sauce, place red peppers in food processor and add wine reduction, butter, sugar and salt; process until smooth.  Pour mixture back into saucepan and simmer on low until ready to serve.
• Season mahi mahi with salt and pepper to taste.  Add cooking oil to a large skillet and heat.  Cook mahi mahi in oil, about 4-5 minutes per side, or until it flakes easily with a fork.
• Spoon red pepper sauce onto plate, place fish on the sauce, and top with pesto.

I think pesto is usually made with pine nuts, but it turned out pretty tasty with pecans instead.  Too bad there wasn’t any left over!

I like this dish because it was fairly simple to make (thanks to my handy food processor) but looks like I spent lots of time on it.  Try it and see what you think!

-Abby