"The problem many people have with Italian food is they over-complicate it. Italian food is extremely simple."
Gino d'Acampo (born 1976)
Here's a stunning dish from Taty's Instagram page @tatyitaly. It's yet another testament to the art of simple and elegant cookery that she so champions. And it's incredibly quick to make too, so is a really valuable addition to one's repertoire of light lunch or supper dishes.
In her typical, understated style she calls this dish simply "Red Mullet, Wine Sauce". A charming title but one that belies a perfect selection of garnishes for the the fish, being leek, cherry tomatoes and olives. And the cooking of the dish is appropriately delicate so as to allow the flavours of each component to shine through and their textures to remain robust.
I make no apology for singing the praises of red mullet in winter, but I am happy to shout from the rooftops about this dish any time of the year. With a chunk of nice bread to mop up the sauce, a glass of white wine, and possibly a side salad, there's really nothing left to be desired.
If you can have your fishmonger pin-bone the fish fillets for you (red mullet is one of the easiest fish to pin-bone yourself), so much the better. But in fact, if you use smaller fillets (by now it should be quite well-known they are my favourite anyway), the pin-bones are not of great concern.
As mentioned above, this is a cracker for a light lunch or a supper dish.
Taty's "Red Mullet, Wine Sauce"
Ingredients (Serves 2)
4 red mullet fillets, scaled and ideally pin-boned
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 small leek or 2 baby leeks, white part only, cut into 1cm discs
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
Handful of black olives, pitted if preferred
125ml white wine, plus a little extra
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley, plus a few picked leaves for garnish
Method
Heat the olive oil with the garlic in a sauté pan and gently sweat the garlic without colour. Add the leak discs, tomatoes and olives to the pan and fry briefly.
Pour in the wine and bring to the boil, then allow the vegetables to simmer while the wine reduces. Season the fish fillets to taste.
When the sauce has reached a soupy consistency add the fish fillets flesh-side down and cover the pan. Reduce the heat to low-medium and cook the fish for 2 minutes or until it is just cooked through. Sprinkle in the chopped parsley and any additional seasoning and stir gently through.
Arrange the fish and vegetables on two serving plates and knap the sauce over. If there is less sauce then you would like simply add a splash or two more wine into the pan and boil rapidly for barely a minute until it has reduced a little.
Garnish with the picked parsley leaves and serve straight away.
Links
@tatyitaly, Instagram page, accessed 28 December 2020
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