This Sheet Pan Salmon Dinner is inspired by Italian panzanella. Roasted salmon and tomatoes paired with crunchy chunks of bread, fresh cucumber, and fragrant basil creates a delicious all-in-one meal.
Traditionally, a panzanella salad is made with day-old bread and loads of fresh tomatoes. This spin adds a non-traditional ingredient with the salmon, but it is every bit as good.
Sheet Pan Salmon Dinner Ingredients
Salmon: Any type of raw salmon will work in the dish. If you are fortunate enough to be able to get fresh wild salmon, use that. If however, you are land-locked, farm-raised frozen is a perfectly good option. You do want to make sure that you choose a center-cut fillet for this recipe. They tend to come from the center of the fillet which makes them a little more uniform in size. This is important since we will be using a high heat to roast the salmon and we want the pieces to be roughly the same size.
Tomatoes: Honestly, you could use any tomato for this recipe. Since we are roasting them, I find that either grape of cherry tomatoes work the best. They don’t tend to produce an excessive amount of liquid which can create a really soggy dish.
Bread: You’ll need 4 – 5 slices of a sturdy bread sliced in 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch slices. Some good options are French bread, sourdough bread, or a whole-grain bread.
Kalamata Olives: I love the tangy flavor that Kalamata olives give to this recipe. If you can’t find them, you could substitute black olives or green olives. The flavor will be a bit different, but still tasty.
Parsley: Italian parsley, please. :)
Garlic: Fresh garlic adds a lovely pungency to this dish. The flavor does soften as it roasts.
Olive oil & Vinegar: We’ll be using olive oil to help brown some of the ingredients as well as to create a vinaigrette-ish sauce that the tomatoes will be tossed with before they’re roasted. The vinegar that I like to use in the recipe is red-wine vinegar. It’s a bit punchy, but has a really nice vibrant fruit flavor. You could also use a white wine vinegar or an apple cider vinegar. I would just steer clear of white distilled vinegar.
Cucumber: Fresh cucumber gives this dish a refreshing bite. English, Persian, or standard cucumbers are all good options. If it’s a particularly seedy variety, I recommend removing the seeds to avoid making the bread overly soggy.
Basil: Not only does the basil add a bright pop of green to the dish, it adds a peppery flavor with just a hint of mint – it is part of the mint family. Please, don’t skip this ingredient.
How To Make Sheet Pan Salmon Dinner
Because we’re working with ingredients that cook at different times, the method for this recipe is much like the method used for the Sheet Pan Shrimp Boil and Sheet Pan Shrimp Dinner with Tomatoes and Gnocchi. Which means we will be staggering the time that the ingredients go into oven to roast. Don’t worry, though, they all go on to the same sheet pan, and you can use the same mixing bowl to prep the ingredients so clean-up is really a breeze.
We’ll start by toasting the bread cubes which have been mixed with some olive oil to help them brown and get a bit crunchy.
The second addition to the sheet pan is a mixture of tomatoes, parsley, garlic, olives, oil and vinegar, and spices. The tomatoes roast until they just start to soften.
Then it’s time for the salmon which has been seasoned with salt and pepper and tossed with some olive oil.
Once the salmon has finished cooking, everything is transferred to a large salad bowl and the cucumber and basil are gently tossed in.
It’s that simple and very delicious!
More Amazing Salmon Recipes
- One-Pan Orzo Salmon Bake
- Best Baked Salmon Dinner
- Easy Salmon Pasta Recipe
- Air Fryer Salmon
- Fresh Salmon Burgers
Sheet Pan Salmon Dinner Recipe
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Entrée
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Italian
DESCRIPTION
This Sheet Pan Salmon Dinner is inspired by Italian panzanella. Roasted salmon and tomatoes paired with crunchy chunks of bread, fresh cucumber, and fragrant basil creates a delicious all-in-one meal.
Ingredients
- 4 slices whole-grain bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
- 6 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
- 2 pints grape or cherry tomatoes, cut in half
- 1/4 cup quartered Kalamata olives
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 1 Tbsp. red-wine vinegar
- 1 tsp. salt, divided
- 1/2 tsp. pepper, divided
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb. skinless center-cut salmon fillets, cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1 medium English cucumber, seeded, quartered, and cut into 1/2-inch slices
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, cut into thin strips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425˚F.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss the bread chunks with 2 tablespoons olive oil.
- Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet and roast until the bread is lightly toasted, about 4 – 5 minutes.
- While the bread is toasting, in the same large mixing bowl, toss the tomatoes, olives, parsley, garlic, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper with 2 tablespoons olive oil and the vinegar.
- Arrange the tomato mixture over and around the bread. Roast until the tomatoes start to soften, about 10 – 12 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in the same large mixing bowl, toss the salmon chunks with the remaining olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
- Nestle the salmon among the tomatoes and bread and roast until the salmon is just cooked through, about 5 – 6 minutes.
- Remove from oven, transfer to a salad bowl, and gently stir in the cucumber and basil.
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