Sheet-pan salmon

• 4 filletssalmon · skin-on, about 6 oz each, even thickness
• 1.5 lbbaby potatoes · halved, quartered if large
• 12 ozgreen beans · trimmed, or broccolini
• 4 tbspextra-virgin olive oil · divided
• 3 clovesgarlic · finely minced, for the finishing oil
• 1lemon · zested, then cut into wedges
• 2 tbspfresh dill · chopped
• 1 tbspflat-leaf parsley · chopped
• 1/2 tspsmoked paprika
• 1/4 tspchili flakes · optional
• 1 tspkosher salt · divided
• 1/2 tspblack pepper

Method

1. 1

   Potatoes get a twenty-minute head start, cut side down

   Oven to 425F with the pan already in it. Halved baby potatoes tossed in two tablespoons of oil, salt and smoked paprika, laid cut side down on the hot pan, twenty minutes untouched. Cut side down on preheated metal is what produces a browned, flat crust rather than pale roasted potato. This is the only part of the dish that needs the full thirty-five minutes.

2. 2

   Green beans go in at the twenty-minute mark

   Pull the pan, push the potatoes to one side, add the beans tossed in a spoon of oil and a pinch of salt, and give everything eight minutes. Beans put in at the start are grey and collapsed by the time the fish is done. Eight minutes of dry roasting plus twelve alongside the salmon leaves them blistered in places and still with a snap.

3. 3

   Salmon goes on last, skin down, for twelve minutes

   Pat the fillets very dry, oil and salt them, and lay them skin down directly on the pan among the vegetables at the twenty-eight-minute mark. Twelve minutes at 425F takes a one-inch fillet to about 125F in the centre, which is moist and just set. Fifteen minutes takes it to chalky. If your fillets are thin tail pieces, start checking at nine.

4. 4

   Dry the fish properly or it steams

   Salmon straight from the packet carries a surprising amount of surface moisture, and moisture on a hot pan means steam, which means no colour and a slightly slack texture. Press both sides with paper towel until the surface looks matte, then oil it. Thirty seconds of work for a visibly better fillet.

5. 5

   Do not crowd the pan, use two if you have to

   A half sheet pan holds one and a half pounds of potatoes, twelve ounces of beans and four fillets, and that is genuinely full. Anything more and the vegetables sit in each other's steam and never brown. If you are cooking for six, use two pans and rotate them halfway rather than piling one high. Crowding is the most common reason sheet-pan dinners come out pale.

6. 6

   The garlic-lemon-dill oil goes on after, not before

   Warm two tablespoons of olive oil with the minced garlic in a small pan for sixty seconds until fragrant but not coloured, then off the heat, stir in the lemon zest, dill, parsley and chili flakes. Spoon it over the fish and vegetables as they come out. Raw garlic on a 425F pan burns black in five minutes and turns bitter, which is why so many sheet-pan recipes taste acrid.

7. 7

   Squeeze the lemon at the table, not on the pan

   Lemon juice added before roasting bleaches the surface of the fish and mostly evaporates. Wedges served alongside, squeezed at the moment of eating, give you the sharp lift the dish is built around. Same principle as the herb oil: the bright, volatile things go on at the end, the durable ones go in the oven.

8. 8

   Leftovers are better cold than reheated

   Three days in the fridge. Reheated salmon dries out and develops that distinct reheated-fish smell, so flake it cold into a grain bowl or a salad with the leftover potatoes and beans instead. If you must reheat, do it covered at 275F for eight to ten minutes, which is gentle enough to keep it edible.