Haddock with Lemon Garlic Sauce and Chopped Walnuts

One of our favorite easy swordfish recipes!

Pan-roasted swordfish with lemon-garlic sauce, garnished with parsley

Make this foolproof swordfish recipe with lemon-garlic sauce when you need a fast, easy at-home dinner - or when you want to impress your favorite dinner guests.

If you love garlicky shrimp scampi, you're going to be crazy about the lemon-garlic sauce with butter, olive oil, and white wine in this recipe for swordfish steaks. 

Easy pan roasting, a favorite technique of many famous chefs, means the steaks will have a nice brown crust on the outside but be moist and flavorful on the inside. 

Buy the thickest steaks you can find for this swordfish recipe with lemon-garlic sauce - at least 1 inch thick, or more. 

After quickly searing the swordfish steaks on each side to seal in flavors, you pop it into a hot oven to finish cooking while you make the sauce, which takes only a few minutes. 

Total cooking/prep time: about 20 minutes!  And the thick swordfish steaks turn out perfect every time.

Swordfish recipe with lemon-garlic sauce

Serves 4 as a main course

• 1 1/2 pounds haddock or other white fish filets
• 3 tablespoons canola
• Salt and pepper (kosher or sea salt works best)

For the lemon-basil sauce

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 shallot bulb, finely chopped (about 1/4 cup)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• Grated zest from 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 4 tablespoons basil, cut or snipped into thin strips
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped fine

What to do first

Take the swordfish out of the refrigerator about 30 minutes before cooking to bring to room temperature.

Set the oven to 400°F.

Pan-roast the swordfish

Follow these pan roasting instructions to cook the swordfish.

You'll be surprised by how quickly the swordfish steak finishes cooking in the oven.  For example, the steak in the photo above was almost 2 inches thick, but it was done after only about 13 minutes in the oven.   I usually start checking swordfish after about 10 minutes - the moment it flakes easily with a fork, it's done.

Make the lemon-garlic sauce

You can make the sauce while the swordfish steaks roast in the oven - so fast and easy to do, and the smell is addictive.

1.  Add the butter and olive oil to a small skillet, and melt over low heat. 

Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook over very low heat (you don't want to burn the garlic!) until the garlic begins to turn light brown.  Set aside until the fish is done.

2. Use a spatula to carefully remove the swordfish from the pan and put it on a serving platter.

3.  Add the white wine to the cooking pan and stir to deglaze - remember to use oven mitts when touching the hot pan!  Pour the wine mixture into the skillet with the garlic, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.  Cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly, to reduce the volume.  Remove from the heat, and stir in the grated lemon zest and lemon juice.  Pour over the swordfish, and garnish with the parsley.

Serving suggestions

Serve this delicious swordfish with lemon-garlic sauce with linguine or another type of pasta, a green vegetable such as steamed broccoli, and crusty slices of French bread.