Garlic Lemon Basil Sauce (aka “the Stuff”)

Name: Garlic Lemon Basil Sauce (aka "the Stuff")
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 1 tbsp white wine; 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil; 1 clove garlic (finely chopped) / 1 tsp garlic paste; 1 tsp basil (finely chopped) / 1 tsp basil paste; zest of ½ lemon; 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice (juice of ½ lemon); ½ lemon, sliced; salt/pepper to taste

January 24, 2020 Frank Mastrandrea Comments 0 Comment

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“The Stuff” is meant to not only pack of punch of flavor, but to do so with a mere 32 calories per ½ lb serving of protein. It’s great on any white fish, on chicken, on turkey… try it on a salad if you’d like! There’s simply no reason adding taste has to mean adding a ton of calories, nor a ton of time to your preparation!

This is not a marinade. It’s not a really a sauce. We have taken to calling it “the Stuff”… as in, “What should we do with this that halibut? Let’s put “the Stuff” on it.” Technically, you could call it a Garlic Lemon Basil White Wine emulsification… but once you realize that you’ve found this tasty, simple and low calorie treatment that works on so many different proteins, I think you’ll end up calling it “the Stuff” too.

The Idea Behind “The Stuff”

One of the real challenges with cooking healthy can be coming up with a complete recipe that is good for you, delicious, and doesn’t require hours of prep time. So often what appears to be a meal full of healthy elements is spoiled by the final addition of a high calorie sauce or marinade. For example, while there are numerous health benefits to extra virgin olive oil, there are 120 calories in just one tablespoon. There are countless so-called “healthy” recipes out there for fish or chicken or turkey which call for a marinade or sauce which will begin with ¼ cup of EVOO, meaning you’re adding 480 calories (for, perhaps 2-4 servings) to your dish right off the top!

“The Stuff” clocks in at a mere 32 calories per ½ lb serving of protein. Having a half-pound piece of swordfish? The Stuff will add 32 calories… but taste like so much more! However, if you’re having a 6 oz piece of fish, the caloric addition is an even smaller 24 calories for the same big flavor punch!

The other goal with this recipe was to make it easy to prepare. As I go through it, I will present a few options at each step (along with the one I recommend the most). But the goal is a recipe that can easily be prepared in 30 minutes on any weeknight with basic ingredients you can (and should) keep in stock in your kitchen.

The applications for “the Stuff” are endless. As mentioned, any white fish would work well. We have tried it successfully on cod, haddock, halibut, mahi mahi, tilapia, and swordfish. It works equally well on chicken or turkey, either on breasts, fillets, or tips. We have long thought it would work nicely as a salad dressing too, but we’ve not yet gotten around to trying it. If you do, please let know what you think!

Ingredients (for 1 lb of Protein)

1 clove garlic (finely chopped) / 1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp basil (finely chopped) / 1 tsp basil paste
zest of ½ lemon
1 tbsp white wine
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
½ lemon, sliced
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice (juice of ½ lemon)
salt/pepper to taste

Basil & Garlic

Everything starts with the basil and garlic. Let’s start with the easier of the two – the garlic. The recipe calls for one clove of garlic, finely chopped. So a fresh garlic clove, put through a garlic press will work wonderfully. If you’re someone who likes to hand chop your garlic that will work well too.

My leading recommendation, however, would be to try a product like Gourmet Garden, which sells numerous herbs and roots in small squeeze tubes. They are very fresh tasting, have a nice shelf life in your fridge and are quick and easy to use. I love the garlic paste, I use it all the time. I’d highly recommend you give it a try. For a product like Gourmet Garden, 1 tsp = 1 clove.

For the basil, add 1 tsp of finely chopped basil. The issue with recipes calling for fresh herbs is that you always buy them in quantities so far beyond what you need that it seems wasteful. To get 1 tsp of basil, you’ll have to buy a pack of basil … most of it you’ll end up throwing away. Drives me crazy. Your choice, of course. If you have an herb garden… all the better.

You could use dried basil in a pinch. No pun intended, as you really will be using just about a pinch… 1/3 of a tsp to be exact. I’ve never seen a 1/3 of a tsp measuring spoon, so just use a heaping 1/4 tsp and you’ll be fine.

Again, my recommendation would be to look into a product like Gourmet Garden. Even if you prefer to use fresh garlic, using the tubes for herbs like basil is so convenient. Trust me, they will change the way you cook. Here, 1 tsp from the tube is equal to 1 tsp of fresh chopped basil.

Oil and Wine

Next add a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil. This one teaspoon is all that’s needed to get the emulsification we require, so the hope is that you, in your kitchen, have invested in a nice bottle of EVOO.

Next, add a tablespoon of white wine. We are at the point where we keep a bottle of white wine and a bottle of red wine open in our fridge to use for cooking. Obviously you should never use so-called “cooking wine”, instead simply use whatever wine you have open and on hand. Or if you’re not a wine drinker (as we are not in our home), just buy a few bottles of wine specifically to cook with when you need them.

Use a Whole Lemon – I Mean Whole

Finally, the lemon. The recipe calls for a tablespoon of lemon juice, and normally I’d say you’d be fine to just use the juice from the bottle rather than having to go through the bother of fresh squeezed … but because it’s such an integral part of “the Stuff” and because we make sure to not waste the rest of the lemon, I’d highly recommend going the extra yard.

First, zest ½ of the lemon. Try to be conscious of trying to actually divide the lemon visually into half (zested and unzested) as you do so. Add the zest to your mixture. Slice the lemon along the zest/no zest line. Set aside the unzested lemon half.

Squeeze the juice of the zested lemon half. If you wish to do so into a measuring spoon, feel free… but after doing this dozens of time, I can tell you that the juice of ½ of a lemon is routinely equal to 1 tablespoon… which is what you need. So simply make sure you’re removing the seeds when you juice it, and add that juice to your mixture.

Stir well, and set aside.

Let’s Bake!

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and prepare with cooking spray.

Take the ½ unzested lemon and slice, setting aside.

Whatever protein you are using, fish or poultry, salt and pepper them to taste.

Lay them in the pan and coat them liberally with “the Stuff”. Place the lemon slices on top of your protein.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes… the actual time which will be determined by the thickness of the particular protein you’ve chosen and at which temperature it’s considered “done.”. To maximize the impact of “the Stuff”, you would be wish to avoid huge, thick slabs of meat (like big, plump chicken breasts, for example), going instead of thinner filet cuts which will have more surface area.

Feel free to experiment with “the Stuff” on all manner of fish or poultry! We haven’t found anything yet on which it hasn’t tasted great!

Oh and by the way, in keeping with the idea of using the whole lemon? That ½ of a lemon from which you squeezed the juice? Once done with that, it can be chopped into quarters and put down your garbage disposal to help freshen that up!