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Home » Grilled Seafood » Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto and a Rosato Wine

Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto and a Rosato Wine

Published: May 7, 2016 · Modified: Aug 16, 2020 by Cooking Chat · This post may contain affiliate links

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Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto is a simple and healthy meal to make on the grill. We paired it with a rosato (rosé) wine as part of the Italian Food, Wine and Travel group virtual visit to Lombardia. A tasty food and wine pairing for grilling season!

Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto is an easy and healthy recipe to make for dinner. Delicious paired with a rosato wine from Italy.

This first time I grilled halibut, and served it with mango salsa, I really enjoyed the way it came out. I saw halibut on sale recently, and decided to make it again. This time we served the grilled halibut with parsley pesto.

Fish can be a good palette to upon which to try different types of pesto. Lately I’ve been all about kale pesto, and of course always like a good basil pesto. But I had extra parsley on hand, and thought I would turn that into pesto for the halibut. Parsley pesto has a nice fresh and lively taste to it, and is a nice change of pace from other types of pesto.

We certainly associate pesto with Italian food. Though pesto will typically be made with basil in Italy, my sense is Italians will sometimes use other fresh herbs to make a pesto.

A quick glance around the web about food from Lombardia makes it clear I can’t claim my grilled halibut with parsley pesto is a regional dish. As one of the few landlocked regions of Italy, Lombardia doesn’t feature as much seafood as some areas. Risottos abound in this rice growing region, as do dishes that use the cheeses and meats found in the area. Oh well, we can loosely call our halibut with pesto an Italian inspired dish. And we enjoyed it with a wine picked for the #ItalianFWT visit to Lombardia!

grilled halibut with parsley pesto

Nope, that is not a risotto you see along with the halibut. That is Quinoa with Grilled Peppers and Onions, which isn’t Italian but worth trying next time you are grilling!

Wine Pairing for Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto

We food and wine bloggers sometimes like to talk about whether our pairing started with the food or the wine. A made this halibut recipe a few weeks ago, so I don’t recall exactly how things evolved. I believe I first planned to make the grilled halibut with parsley pesto, then when I saw there were whites and rosés available at Pairings from Lombardia, I figured one of those bottles would pair well with our grilled halibut.

Ottella Rosesroses is a tasty Italian rosato wine.

I wound up pairing our halibut with the 2015 Ottella Rosesroses ($14, 12% ABV). This rosato, as I suppose I should be calling a rosé from Italy, is made from a blend of Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara. I don’t know a lot about these grape varietals, but I do seem to hear them blended together in Northern Italy.

I got watermelon on the nose of this wine, fast forwarding me to summer. Taste of strawberry and rose petals, this is a flavorful and pleasant wine to drink. I was pleased with the way it paired with our grilled halibut and parsley pesto, and suspect it would be a good pairing for many grilled fish and chicken dishes. And I could see sipping this by a pool on a warm day without a food pairing, too!

Our local wine shop and a number of wine sites associate the Ottella winery with Lombardia. Ottella is located in Peschiera del Garda, which I gather seems to be on the border between Veneto and Lombardia, where Lake Garda ends and the Mincio river begins. Some references indicate the address of the winery is in Veneto. Even if that is so, I’m glad that the Italian Food, Wine and Travel group’s visit to Lombardia gave me a chance to sample this refreshing rosato!

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Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto

grilled halibut with parsley pesto
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Grilled halibut topped with an easy, flavorful parsley pesto for a healthy main course.

  • Author: Cooking Chat
  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Cook Time: 12 mins
  • Total Time: 22 mins
  • Yield: 3 servings 1x
  • Category: Main
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 cup parsley
  • 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted
  • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 halibut steaks, about 1 inch thick and 12 to 16 ozs total
  • cooking oil spray

Instructions

  1. Make the parsley pesto: add the garlic to a food processor, and whir the garlic to mince.
  2. Add the parsley, pumpkin seed, olive oil, salt and pepper to the food processor. Puree to combine all the ingredients into a consistent pesto sauce. Set aside while you grill the fish.
  3. Coat the halibut with olive oil or canola spray. Place on the grill, and grill covered for 5 minutes.
  4. Flip the fish to grill covered for another 5 minutes.
  5. Check the fish after 10 minutes of total grilling time. It should be white throughout and flake apart. Finish with another couple minutes of grilling if needed. The halibut takes 10 to 12 minutes to grill, depending on your grill heat and thickness of the fish.
  6. Remove the halibut from the grill to a platter. Let the halibut rest for a couple minutes, then serve the halibut topped with the parsley pesto.

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Italian Food Wine & Travel Lombardia Reports

Join our Twitter chat Saturday May 7th at 11 am EDT @ #ItalianFWT to chat about Lombardia. Plus, don’t miss next month as we feature our last region of Italy, Liguria.  This will complete our first full tour of Italy.  See you June 4th!

Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto and a side of quinoa makes for a healthy dinner.Vino Travels –  Chiavennasca of Lombardia vs. Nebbiolo of Piedmont
The Wining Hour –  Vines and Views of Valtellina Valley
Culinary Adventures of Camilla – Sbrisolana and Cantina Casteggio Barbera
Girl’s Gotta Drink –  Visit Franciacorta Wine Region: Italian Sparkling Wine For the Win!
Enofylz Wine Blog– Franciacorta: The World Class Italian Sparkling Wine of Lombardy #ItalianFWT
Food Wine Click – Valtellina: Another Expression of Nebbiolo
Orna O’Reilly –   Sirmione: Pearl of Lake Garda
The Palladian Traveler – Spritz Campari: Milan’s Passionate Red Cocktail
Cooking Chat – Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto and Wine from Lombardia
L’Occasion –  36 Hours in Lombardy
Vigneto Communications – Lombardia: A Wealth of Wine

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jennifer Martin (Vino Travels)

    May 07, 2016 at 8:49 am

    Interesting how there is such confusion on where the winery is located. Those grapes are typical of the Veneto and Valpolicella, but with Lake Garda bordering both regions it could be on the border. The rose’ looks perfect with this dish.

    Reply
    • Cooking Chat

      May 08, 2016 at 6:01 am

      Ah, right, I new these grapes sounded familiar, thanks for the reminder as to why!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Franciacorta; The Italian Sparkling Wine of Lombardy says:
    June 6, 2016 at 4:47 pm

    […] Cooking Chat – Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto and a Rosato Wine […]

    Reply
  2. Fresh Tomato Salsa Pasta with an Italian Rosato | Cooking Chat says:
    August 6, 2016 at 7:07 am

    […] you’re looking for another Italian rosato, I really enjoyed the Otella Rosesroses that I paired with Grilled Halibut and Parsley Pesto for a past #ItalianFWT event. Fresh Tomato Salsa Pasta   Print Prep time 5 mins […]

    Reply
  3. Grilled Halibut with Wine from Abruzzo | Cooking Chat says:
    June 1, 2018 at 6:25 am

    […] I tried my hand with grilled halibut previously, serving Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto and a Rosato. […]

    Reply
  4. Quinoa with Grilled Onions and Peppers | Cooking Chat says:
    August 14, 2019 at 7:25 am

    […] dish for a night you are cooking something else on the grill. We originally served this quinoa with Grilled Halibut with Parsley Pesto.  More recently, we enjoyed it with some simple grilled pork […]

    Reply

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Hi there! I'm David. I love creating tasty, (mostly) healthy recipes, finding great wine pairings, and sharing good food with family and friends. learn more about me!

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