Whole fish with pesto

I made pesto several weeks ago and it continues to delight today. Look at this beautiful whole fresh fish we grilled with the pesto.

In our neighborhood we have an Asian market that I discovered one day completely by accident. I've only been living in the area for 8 years and never knew it was there. Ever since finding it I have made special trips there to walk around the isles and look at all the unusual ingredients. Unusual to me that is. I don't do much Asian style cooking so seeing isles of food items that I have never used is a new and exciting adventure. They have an entire isle of noodles!

They have a fresh fish section that was somewhat intimidating the first time I was there. All those fish heads. Yikes! I usually buy my fish filleted so seeing all the whole fish was somewhat startling....for a brief moment. The store has a long counter packed with ice and whole fresh fish. Then there are the tanks of crab and lobster and clams. Yum. And sushi type fish like salmon and tuna which is outstanding along with lots of other fishy things I have no idea what to do with. I'm not a sushi maker, seems like way to much trouble to me, when I can walk into a sushi bar and have it prepared right before my eyes. But the freshness of the fish and the quality is something you do not find every day. After many months of visiting this store I have learned how to maneuver and have purchased fresh fish several times each time enjoying it so much that I want to go back for more. I think its hard for most of us to get fish into our diets so when you find a market like this that is convenient and good it makes it that much easier.

For this recipe I buy the whole fresh fish cleaned by the fish monger. My husband is the grill master so he is in charge of preparing and cooking it. He brushed it with olive oil, squeezed on some lemon, brushed it inside and out with the pesto, then grilled it. When it came off the grill he brushed it with more pesto while still hot.

Sometimes he will stuff it with some lemon slices, garlic and rosemary. This imparts a wonderful flavor to the fish.

This is another example of the pleasure of making the pesto recipe and incorporating fresh fish into your diet.

Healthy eating!