Many of us are “meat and potatoes” types. And it can take something special to get us to budge. Here’s that something special. Meat stays but now is present in the form of fish. And the potatoes are here, too, but now appear as faux scale for the fish. This dish begins with obvious visual appeal and then compounds that with blended textures of fish and potato.
This recipe is from As the Romans Do by Eleonora Galasso, a compendium of Roman recipes — some classic and some Eleonora-inspired — that will give your hours of culinary pleasure.
Seabream in Potato Crust
Yield: serves 2
Ingredients:
- ½ cup dry white wine
- Sprig of thyme, finely chopped
- 1 bay leaf, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon chopped rosemary leaves
- 3 tablespoons chopped curly parsley leaves
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing and drizzling
- 1 sea bream or sea bass, about 1 pound 5 ounces, cleaned, gutted, and scaled (ask your fish dealer to do this for you)
- 2 ¼ pound medium russet potatoes
- ⅓ stick unsalted butter, melted
- Salt and pepper
Preparation:
In a small bowl, stir together the wine, chopped herbs, and olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place the sea bream in a large dish and brush inside and out with the herby marinade to ensure it is evenly coated. Transfer to the refrigerator and let marinate for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, peel, wash, and dry the potatoes before cutting them into ¼ -inch slices. Drop the potato slices into a bowl filled with water and let stand for 10 minutes to release any excess starch.
Drain the potatoes, then drop them into a saucepan of salted boiling water and blanch for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain again and let cool on parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper and grease with a little olive oil.
Arrange half the potatoes on the prepared baking pan to form a silhouette as long and as wide as the sea bream itself, season them with salt and pepper, and drizzle with a little extra oil.
Remove the fish from the marinade and place it on top of the potato layer, then arrange the remaining potatoes over the fish in an overlapping pattern as if they were scales. Brush everything with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Cover the head and tail of the fish with aluminum foil, spoon three- quarters of the marinade over the rest of the fish, and bake for 10 minutes. Then lower the heat to 325°F and bake for a further 10 minutes, until the fish is almost cooked through. Turn the broiler onto high, brush the fish with melted butter, and cook for a final 5 minutes until golden.
Remove the fish from the oven and transfer to a serving plate. Serve warm, with the remaining marinade in a small bowl on the side as a sauce.
Source: As the Romans Do by Eleonora Galasso [Mitchell Beazley, 2016]