Italian Baked Fish
This is a recipe from Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course.
This recipe is from Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course. The edition I have was printed in 1987. It’s great. It doesn’t seem possible to mess these recipes up – and that’s saying something coming from me.
I chose this recipe because 1) it’s simple 2) it’s heart healthy (fish and olives – very good for the heart) and 3) apart from the fish, it’s made with ingredients that have a long shelf-life. Fresh ingredients are great – and yes, they taste best – but it’s so great to have good recipes that you can make up easily with staples you have in the cupboard – and are less likely to run out of or forget to use in time. Apart from the fish. You need to get that fresh. Or I suppose you could have 4 fillets frozen. Yes, just thaw them out, that would work too.
In the book she advises serving this with brown rice and a crisp green salad. I don’t know how crisp my salad was but salad and brown rice certainly work with this. I read somewhere, maybe in this book, maybe some other recipe book, that the best way to serve brown rice is in its own little bowl and before you add the rice, slice a garlic clove and rub it all around the inside of bowl. It’s a great little tip, it really does add some flavour to the rice.
Reading the recipe again to write it down – it actually says tossed green salad – not crisp.
Ingredients
- 4 thick pieces of white fish (any type of white fish is fine)
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 fat clove garlic, crushed
- 14oz (400g) tin plum tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 lb mushrooms (110g / about 1/2 punnet), thinly sliced
- 1 dessertspoon black olives
- juice of half a lemon
- salt and freshly milled black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the onion for about 5 minutes.
- Add the garlic and tomatoes. Season with the salt, pepper and basil. Bring to a simmering point and cook gently - uncovered - for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Heat the oven to 190 C.
- Add the mushrooms and stir them in well. Simmer for a further 10 minutes until it looks like a thick purée.
- Place the fish in a shallow baking dish or tin, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the lemon juice over all 4 pieces.
- Spoon an equal quantity of the purée onto each piece of fish and scatter a few olives on top.
- Cover the dish with tin foil and bake on a high shelf for about 25 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.
- Serve with brown rice and a tossed green salad.
