Recipe: Mediterranean Cod - Without the Mess

My dad called me up a few weeks ago to rave about a dish he’d made for himself and my mom, following to the letter a Mark Bittman recipe. What was surprising is that my mother hates fish; I love fish, but frequently skip making it to avoid its particular sort of mess. Not so, this recipe.

One of the biggest realizations for me as I read Bittman’s general technique notes is this: if it’s going to make too horribly big or too unappetizing a mess, I will turn the page to find a different recipe. Going back to time immemorial, there has been something about a fish roasting pan, emptied of the flesh — with caramelized skin fused to the pan — that turns my stomach and will stop me from making a dish I’d otherwise very much like to eat and/or serve. Parchment paper is the solution to this problem and I do not recommend making any baked fish recipe without it, unless you really despise whoever is on dish duty.

Well, I don’t think I ever properly found the recipe my dad described to me, but I had the basic gist of it, so I got going — and you can too. Nothing too tricky about this one and it’s susceptible to alterations according to your taste. Like a lot of things, it’s just a matter of thinking of putting certain things together for the first time in awhile (or ever). So, I did what Mark taught me how to do and winged it. All measurements are approximate and should rightly be fiddled around with to satisfy your preferences! Recipe adapted from a conversation about a recipe:

1 lb. cod or other mild fish
⅓ c. olive oil
28 oz. can of whole tomatoes
½ c. olives
¼ c. capers
medium onion, sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, smashed in the press
whole lemon
pinch of sugar
hot red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Line a jelly roll or roasting pan with parchment paper and arrange fish in 3-bite-sized hunks. Slice onion, smash garlic, and add to the pan, along with a generous drizzling of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, sugar, and all the zest of the lemon. Squeeze the lemon’s juice over top and toss the rinds in the pan too. Strain a can of whole tomatoes, then break the tomatoes apart a bit with your fingers, squeezing them out a bit as you go and then adding them to the fish pan.

Bake until fish is done to your liking (I prefer it a little overdone, I’ll concede) and the onions are golden. The pan will still be a bit of a mess, but not a page-turning one.

Good with a salad with vinaigrette and crusty bread.

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