When the weather is hot and the produce is gorgeous, there’s nothing I like better for dinner than a freshly composed Salade Nicoise.  It’s a French classic, simple, flavorful and substantial enough to make a one dish meal.

The traditional version from Nice on the Cote d’Azur is built around  high quality tuna canned in olive oil, the slender green beans known as haricots verte and a lively vinaigrette.  Potatoes are not included and the vegetables are never cooked.

The version Julia Child popularized on these shores, however, features  boiled potatoes and lightly steamed green beans.  More recently, chefs have substituted grilled tuna for the canned as well.

As long as the ingredients are fresh, I like them all.  The only bad Salade Nicoise I’ve ever eaten was at a tourist trap on St. Germain des Pres in Paris where someone decided that cold leftover rice would be a good replacement for potatoes.  It was horrible.

When I can find fresh local albacore, this variation is my favorite.  It’s almost as good, however, with a nice can of  tuna.

Even the most enthusiastic cooks face days when 5 p.m. rolls around and they still haven’t the faintest idea what they’re making for dinner.  The refrigerator is bare, there’s no time to go to the store and ordering take-out is not in the budget.

That’s when I turn to the pantry.  Mine always holds at least one package of spaghetti, a can of diced tomatoes and a can of clams (I like Geisha brand) for this simple but satisfying pasta.  Oh yes, there’s always a hunk of Parmigiano Reggiano in the fridge, too.  A head of garlic waits in a terra cotta jar on the counter and a big bottle of extra virgin olive oil stands in the cupboard.  If I’m lucky, there will be fresh Italian parsley in the crisper but it’s not absolutely essential.

The recipe for this emergency dish originally came from an old copy of  “The Romagnoli’s Table” (Little Brown, 1975) that I picked up at a used book store.  Since this was the only recipe that caught my fancy, the book was recycled long ago.  Now, I’ve been making the pasta by rote for so long that I’m not even sure how close it comes to the original anymore.

What I like about this dish is that the sauce comes together in the time it takes to boil the pasta. The bright flavors of the tomato play a pleasing counterpoint to the briny clams and salty parmesan.

Nothing is wasted — the tomato juices and clam juices form the basis of the sauce.  They cook down in a little garlic-infused olive oil before the clams are tossed in at the last minute.  The good news, too, is that clams are listed as a best choice on the Seafood Watch list.

Lately, I’ve been making this dish with bucatini rather than the usual spaghetti or linguine.  The pasta looks like thick strands of spaghetti, but it’s formed like straws with a hole in the center of the strands, and the texture is delightfully chewy.

With a couple of cans in the pantry and this pasta in your repertoire, you never have to worry about what’s for dinner.

Once upon a time, fresh salmon made a regular appearance on my dinner table.  The California fishery was still relatively healthy and I could always count on finding fresh, locally-caught king salmon at my neighborhood grocery store throughout the spring and summer.  The succulent orange flesh of the thick steaks and fillets was irresistible.  Prices weren’t bad either.

Fast forward a decade and fresh salmon from local fishing boats has become a rare luxury.  Federal authorities have placed the California coastal king salmon, also known as Chinook, on their list of threatened species. The state closed salmon fisheries altogether for the first time in 2008 and 2009 because the stock of Chinook was so low.  This year, the ocean season was restricted to the month of April and catches were limited to two salmon a day.

Of course, there’s still salmon in the market, but most of the wild-caught fish has been shipped from Alaska with prices to match. Even then much of it is labeled “previously frozen” because most of the Alaskan catch is flash-frozen on the boat as soon as it’s caught.  So I’ve been reconsidering the shrink-wrapped wild salmon in the freezer cases at stores like Trader Joe’s, where prices are about half that of fresh fish.

My lucky break came last week when I met a rep from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute at the Cooking for Solutions event hosted by Monterey Bay Aquarium, the organization that brought us the helpful Seafood Watch guides to sustainable fish.  She pointed me to cookitfrozen.com, where the Institute has posted instructions for cooking fish straight from the freezer.  (There’s a free iPhone app, too.)

The results were impressive.  A good-sized fillet of sockeye salmon went from freezer to plate in about 10 minutes.  The flesh was moist and the flavor rich.  The lively Asian spices I added in the last minutes of cooking pumped up the flavor and proved a tasty counterpoint to the mixed greens on which I served the fish.

One note of caution:  Use an old skillet, preferably cast iron, for pan searing, which can be messy. And turn on the exhaust fan.  My good stainless steel saute pan had to be soaked and scrubbed several times to remove the burned-on splatters and non-stick is out of the question since the pan remains empty during pre-heating.

You also can poach, roast, steam and grill in foil from frozen.

I created an Asian spice blend for my salmon but any combination of spices that appeals to you will work.  Lemon pepper is suggested for salmon on the web site.

The coho wasn’t quite as good as the local King salmon but it was far better than the farmed Atlantic salmon that most people eat.  According to Howard Johnson, director of global programs at Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, 80 percent of the fresh and frozen salmon consumed in the U.S. is farmed.

It’s better for the environment, too.  Although advances are being made in aquaculture, fish farming in the ocean continues to pose serious environmental issues, from the interbreeding of escaped farmed fish with wild species to the overfishing of smaller forage fish used to feed the farmed salmon.   With the exception of Pacific coho grown in contained freshwater environments by Washington-based AquaSeed Corp., Seafood Watch lists farmed salmon among the fish to avoid.  Alaska wild-caught salmon is touted as a best choice.

Now we all can have our salmon and clean consciences, too — without blowing our budgets.

I don’t know about you but I don’t eat fish very often anymore, as much as I like it.  Sometimes it seems like everything I want is either threatened with extinction, bad for my body or a blow to my budget.

So it was cause for celebration when I found a great-tasting fish that was easy on my conscience, my health and my bank account.   Who knew that sardines, those oft-maligned little fish, would be so good?

I write about the pleasures of sardines today in the San Jose Mercury News (Story now below).   Although I realize they’re a tough sell in our culture, there’s a reason they’re so popular in Spanish and Italian cuisines. Their deep savor marries well with the bold flavors of garlic, peppers and citrus.

Nate Appleman, the hot young chef of San Francisco’s A16, keeps sardines on his menu all the time.  He appreciates that they are sustainable and local but he’s hooked on their flavor.

Appleman likes to roast sardines in  the restaurant’s wood-fired oven and I included one of his recipes with the story.  It’s a simple technique that delivers vivid flavors and appealing textures.

A more basic recipe is this one I found in Teresa Barrenechea’s “The Basque Table” (Harvard Common Press, 1998, 232pp, $16.95).  The sardines develop a crisp skin and pleasantly moist flesh as they roast in a hot oven.  Minced garlic, parsley and breadcrumbs add nice texture as well as complementary flavors.

Give them a try.  Sardines may well be the perfect fish for our times.

Added on 12/11/2009, after the story disappeared from the Mercury News’ online archives:

SARDINES: A new school of thought
It’s healthy, sustainable, flavorful—what’s not to like?
(San Jose Mercury News, page 1D, June 24, 2009)

Consider the humble sardine:  Low in mercury, high in healthful Omega 3 fatty acids, and abundant once again in the chilly waters of Monterey Bay, it may be the perfect fish for our times.

Sardines are one of the few species that environmentally conscious diners can devour without guilt or serious damage to their budgets.  The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program gives them the green light as a best choice for sustainability.

The surprise for many Americans is how delightful sardines can be when prepared fresh. If your only experience with sardines has been mushy, oily fillets out of a can, you’re in for a treat.

Fresh sardines, straight off the grill with a squeeze of lemon, are milder than you might expect, with meaty flavor, crisp skin and a delicate texture.   The high oil content – the source of all those Omega 3s — gives them a deep savor that holds its own with the bold flavors of garlic, peppers and citrus.

Long a favorite in Mediterranean cuisines, the little silver fish are growing in popularity in Bay Area food circles, where sardines star on the menus of hip restaurants and sell out at farmers markets.

Nate Appleman, this year’s James Beard Rising Star chef, is a big fan, He serves sardines draped atop bruschetta, roasted with green garlic and mint, or tossed with pasta, capers and garlic at his acclaimed San Francisco restaurant, A16.

“Sardines are definitely on our menu in some shape or form all the time,” says Appleman, whose restaurant takes its name from a highway that cuts through southern Italy.  “I serve it raw.  I roast it.  I put it in pasta.  I chop it up and braise it.  I’d say my favorite is just out of the wood oven.”

As much as he loves the full flavor and versatility of sardines, the chef also appreciates the fact that sardines are an environmentally sound product pulled from local waters.

“We’re committed to being as sustainable as possible. Sardines are as sustainable as you can get.  They’re on the bottom of the food chain,” Appleman says.

Early July is the best time to find fresh sardines, whether at farmers markets or at upscale grocers such as Whole Foods.  The next segment of the sardine fishing season begins July 1 and is expected to last only a couple of weeks, according to Diane Pleschner-Steele, executive director of the California Wetfish Producers Assoc.

Sometimes commercial boats get a small proportion of sardines out of season as a by-catch when they’re fishing for mackerel, anchovies or squid, but that availability is not predictable.

When fresh sardines are available, Hans Haveman, of H&H Fresh Fish Co. based in Santa Cruz, says he sells 100 to 150 pounds a week at the 10 farmers markets he works between Monterey and Oakland.

He’s always liked sardines and once he started seeing them in restaurants, he decided to try offering them to his customers.   “We just cleaned a bunch,” he says, “and they sold like gangbusters.”

“Personally, I like them with just olive oil on the grill,” Haveman says.  “What I was doing last year, which is a nice recipe, was roasting tomatoes alongside the sardines.”  The roasted tomatoes went into a blender with a little balsamic, good olive oil and salt and pepper to taste to make a bright sauce for the fish.

Fresh sardines aren’t available year-round because the harvest is tightly managed by the federal Pacific Fishery Management Council, which works to forestall a fishery collapse such as the one that finished off Monterey’s formerly thriving cannery industry in the 1950s.  Although the sardine population is known to fluctuate naturally, over fishing was suspected as a factor in the disappearance of the fish from the bay at that time.

The season is divided into three segments spaced from January to September and the 60-some sardine boats working the California coast quickly reach their quota, which is set at a total of 66,000 metric tons this year. Most of the harvest is frozen in bulk and sent overseas for canning, feed for aquaculture, or bait for fish higher on the food chain, such as tuna.  The slender sardines bring as little as 3 cents a pound on the wholesale market,

Kenneth Coale, director of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, hopes to raise the status of the fishery by making sardines more appealing to the average American.   The labs recently bought an off-loading facility at the Central Coast fishing harbor to support the local sardine fleet.  Now Coale is looking for a way to acquire a filleting machine and package cleaned fillets to be sold to consumers in convenient, frozen form.

“The problem is Americans think of sardines as something that’s oily, stinky and comes from a can,” Coale says.  “What we’re trying to do is get Americans to think outside the can.”

A solid domestic market could pay fishermen more per pound so they wouldn’t have to catch so many fish to make a profit, he contends.  That would take a lot of pressure off a fishery that feeds other marine species and birds as well as humans.

“I think we should stop wasting the gift that’s on our doorstep,” Coale says, “And if this makes more sardine eaters out of us, I think that’s great.”

One of the striking ironies of Alaska is how difficult it is to find fresh fish in the ports serving North America’s biggest fishery.

Frozen fish is everywhere, neatly packaged in vacuum-sealed pouches.  That’s because all but a small portion of the huge harvest of salmon and halibut is destined for markets elsewhere.  The fish are filleted and frozen within hours after they’re pulled from Alaska’s icy oceans.

Homer, where we spent a couple of days earlier this week, is the hub of halibut fishing.  The legendary Spit is lined with signs advertising halibut charters.  Hundreds of commercial fishing boats fill the harbor.  Several processing plants do nothing but pack and freeze fish to ship around the world.

It seemed like the perfect place to find a nice chunk of fish for the seafood chowder recipe I had brought with me from California.  Yet finding fish that wasn’t frozen as hard as a chunk of marble proved daunting.

The supermarkets didn’t have any fresh local fish.  When I went to the market on the spit recommended by the manager of the campground where I was staying, it didn’t have any fresh halibut either.  The case was filled with frozen fillets.

“Don’t you have any fresh fish,” I asked?

“It’s fresh frozen,” the young clerk replied.

Now I know that flash frozen fish is pretty good.  It’s certainly better than fish that has been sitting around in a cold case for a couple of days.  But it still doesn’t compare with the firm texture and sweet flavor of fish that’s just been pulled from the sea.  So I kept looking.

Down the street, there was another processor that touted its fresh halibut.  But the shop was locked and a sign on the door suggested calling for assistance.  When I dialed the number, the man who answered said he did have fresh fish but he wouldn’t be back to his business until the next day.

I would be gone by then, headed north to Tok, and I began to despair of cooking the chowder I had been anticipating for weeks.

Luckily for me, Joe of Kachemack Bay Seafood was walking by and overheard my cell phone conversation.

“I can get you some fresh halibut,” he offered.

I followed him to his little shop, hidden near the docks, where he pulled a glistening halibut out of an ice chest and expertly cut off a fillet just the size I wanted.

“Most people are surprised how hard it is to find fresh fish down here,” he said.  “The frozen is good alright, but it’s just not the same.”

I thanked him profusely and took my beautiful piece of fish back to the camper, where I made this elegantly simple chowder on the two-burner propane stove.  Light and fresh, it was the perfect showcase for this impeccably fresh fish.

Resist the urge to add too much seasoning or take measures to thicken the broth.  You want the sweet, slightly briny flavor of the fish to sing out in this dish.

Halibut, firm and mildly flavored, is my choice for the chowder but any firm, white-fleshed fish would be good.  Just be sure not to overcook it.

Of course, fresh fish is best.

The sapphire waters of the Inland Passage are the lifeblood of Southeast Alaska.  Winding through a magnificent landscape of dense forests, deep fjords and glacier-carved peaks mantled in snow, the icy seas teem with marine life that has sustained the native Tlingit people and fed the bears, bald eagles and migrating whales for millennia.

Today, the maze of inlets, channels and sounds serves as a watery highway to the outside world for fishing camps and towns hugging its shores for the more than 200 miles from Ketchikan to Juneau. The waters support a vast commercial fishing industry.  They’re a primary draw, too, for throngs of tourists, who sail in aboard cruise ships and ferries throughout the summer, hoping for a glimpse of wild life that lives off the ocean’s bounty.

Lucky me, I’ve arrived during the King salmon season, when it seems every fishing crew is racing to get its share of the lucrative catch. Fishermen sell whole fish off boats in the harbors and local papers publish notices of salmon fishing derbies.

King salmon, with its luxuriously moist red flesh and rich flavor, is my favorite fish.  Since we’re camping, I’m not equipped to handle a whole one, so I’ve been buying fillets and steaks from the markets. Although I haven’t found any bargains ($16.99 a pound appears to be the going price), the salmon has been incredibly fresh and satisfying.

This is fish without guilt.  Wild salmon are plentiful here and the fishery is managed to ensure that enough mature salmon are left to swim back upstream and spawn at the end of their life cycle.  Forage for the eagle and bear populations is factored into the equation.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program ranks wild Alaskan salmon as a best fish choice for diners.

“For us, it’s one of the poster children for a sustainable fishery,” says Geoff Shester, senior science manager for the aquarium’s sustainable seafood initiative.

When salmon is wild and straight out of the sea, it needs little embellishment.  I’ve been cooking it very simply.  Fillets were excellent pan-fried quickly in butter then finished with a tablespoon of capers and a splash of red wine vinegar a la Nigel Slater.  But a thick steak, cooked in a foil packet over hot coals in a campfire ring, was sublime.

All I added to the steak were a few cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced scallions and a generous pinch of dried thyme.  This recipe, adapted from Mark Bittman’s “Quick and Easy Recipes,” should work just as well in a hot oven or on a grill.  Fresh sprigs of thyme would be a nice addition.

For camping, cooking in foil can’t be beat. The fish stays moist and is hard to overcook. It definitely produced the best salmon we’ve tasted in Alaska.

Still, the pan-fried salmon comes in a close second.  So I’m including that recipe here, too.

If you can’t find perfectly fresh salmon, try some of the flash-frozen fish sold in better markets for these dishes.  When the fish is thawed slowly in the refrigerator before cooking, the texture and flavor remain quite good.