Grilled Fish

Chef Kevin Willmann of Farmhaus in St. Louis likes to grill cobia, a sweet, flaky whitefish, for this bright, refreshing salad. If you can’t get wild cobia, mahimahi or even farm-raised cobia are also a sustainable choice. Willmann also suggests chilling the grilled fish before assembling the salad for easier and cleaner flakes.

A riff on the classic Venetian dish sarde in saor, this recipe combines meaty swordfish with vinegared onions and smoky grilled fennel. Look for swordfish steaks that have a nice sheen and are relatively thin; they’re more tender than heftier steaks, which can be mealy.

These easy swordfish steaks are smothered with a delicious basil-caper butter and can be ready in under 45 minutes.

Jalapeños not only garnish this sweet-smoky grilled salmon but also infuse the oil used to sauté the tomatoes.

Thin slices of lardo (Italian cured back fat) are the key to this luscious dish from Erik Anderson and Josh Habiger.

Drizzling this moist and tender grilled fish with an Asian vinaigrette is easy and utterly delicious.

For this quick and bold sauce, Zak Pelaccio purees vibrant ingredients like fresh lemongrass and ginger with chiles and fish sauce. The sauce is delicious with any grilled or roasted fish, with or without the banana leaves.

Zesty nut butter and bright herb sauce are the perfect accompaniments for meaty halibut.

Branzino, a European sea bass, is low in fat but has a wonderful richness when cooked on the bone. Barbara Lynch stuffs the fish with lemons and herbs, then grills it until the skin is browned and crispy to add even more flavor.

Salade Niçoise is one of the great summer dishes of Southern France. It’s the centerpiece of a party that's all about sunny Mediterranean style, from the wine to the plates to the tea towels.

To top meaty mahimahi, Michael White makes a vinegary caponata (;a Sicilian relish) with fresh artichoke hearts, not the traditional tomatoes and eggplant. Trimming artichokes can be time-consuming, so buy marinated artichoke hearts from the grocery store instead.

Caroline Styne likes to coat delicate halibut fillets in fresh herbs and grill them until lightly charred; to make a tangy sauce, she cooks cherry tomatoes in tarragon-infused browned butter until they burst with juice.

For Marcia Kiesel, salmon is an excellent low-maintenance ingredient for the grill because it doesn't need careful testing for doneness—the fish is wonderful cooked anywhere from rare to medium. As soon as the fillets come off the grill, she tops them with a tangy pickle-studded butter.

Pete Evans grills whole fish in banana leaves with soy, sherry and ginger.

Thai cooks love tilapia for its versatility. “You can steam it, fry it or grill it,” Andy Ricker says about this mild white fish. He stuffs whole fish with lemongrass, encases it in a salt crust, and cooks it over a charcoal fire. Be sure the heat stays relatively low, or the crust will burn before the fish is ready to emerge, moist and fragrant.

Bobby Flay presents his sweet-spicy salmon with three different sauces, including tomatillo salsa, black bean sauce and jalapeño crema (a play on Mexican sour cream). To simplify, omit the crema and serve the salmon with sour cream instead.

Thin slices of garlic cooked in olive oil make a double contribution to this dish: The flavorful oil is used for basting the fish, and the garlic “chips” are sprinkled over the finished dish as a crunchy topping.