Sweet Salmon Success

It's summer, and when I cook in the summer, I like to cook foods which are fresh and have many fresh summer veggies. So last week when I learned that my mom's friend would be coming over for dinner outside on the patio, I excitedly took on the task of cooking the dinner. But first I had to come up with the menu... again, I was thinking fresh...my mind navigated to the Tuscan region in Italy, where fresh pastas, seafood, salads, and cheeses are ubiquitous on dinner plates throughout the region. So I knew I wanted to use those ingredients. At the same time, as I looked around my kitchen, I saw boxes of tea which someone was having for breakfast...I was like, "Wouldn't it be cool to cook a meal using tea in every dish?" So at that point, my meal was shaping up to involve pasta, fish, salad, tea, and cheese. When I think of a fresh summer salad green, I think of arugula. Arugula is a leafy bitter green that widely grows by the Italian seacoast. When dressed with a citrus-y vinaigrette, the bitterness, sweetness, and acidity make for a very simple, light, and fresh salad. Even without dressing, arugula is great as a topping for pasta. So perfect, arugula and pasta sounded great. But the fish and the tea were giving me some trouble.
So I took a nap.
As I lay down, after a few minutes of thinking, I suddenly had a Eureka moment: if I were to make a reduction of some tea, I could glaze a nice meaty fish, like salmon, with it to create a sweet element...so then using the Southern staple sweet tea (which is a black tea) made complete sense! When you reduce a liquid, you boil it down until you are left with around 1/4 of your original amount. So when you reduce a sweet liquid, all of the original sugar level is concentrated into a smaller amount of liquid, so the resulting reduction is very sweet, and I knew my pasta, arugula, and salmon would benefit greatly from some sweetness.
So my menu was this:
Sweet-tea glazed grilled salmon on top of fettuccine (which I tossed in garlic infused oil- just boil some olive oil with garlic cloves until they become dark and toasty), topped with an arugula salad (which I tossed with a citrus-parsley vinaigrette)... sprinkled with some Pecorino Romano cheese and red pepper flakes. I figured that some slices of garlic rubbed grilled French bread would accompany perfectly. (Slice some French bread, brush with olive oil, grill, then rub with garlic cloves)
So that's what I did. Everyone LOVED the food! There was the garlic-ky, toasty flavor from the pasta, the sweet and savory flavor from the salmon, topped with the fresh citrus flavor of the salad...with a bit of cheesy goodness on top, and the pop of the pepper flakes. It was great, so I definitely wanted to tell you about the meal. I'll post the recipes in a few days...until then, you'll have to just salivate with anticipation. But when I do post them, give them a try...questions are natural, so post them!