Recipe: Whole Roasted Sea Bass with Rosemary Oil
The approach of Thanksgiving always gets me thinking about food that has nothing to do with Thanksgiving. It’s not my favorite food holiday. In fact, I’d have to say it’s my least favorite food holiday, except possibly for Halloween. I like the wines that go with turkey, but I don’t really love the turkey. I like the turkey skin. I’d honestly be happy with a few glasses of Nero d’Avola, crisp turkey skin on a salad, and then a big piece of pecan pie.
Since we’re just a few days from Thanksgiving and you’ve likely already got your menu down, I thought I’d give you a favorite Christmas Eve dish of mine, one for La Vigilia, the big Italian Christmas Eve dinner. I love rosemary with fish, and this dish is fragrant with it. I warm whole sprigs in olive oil, letting their essence release with the gentle heat, and I throw in a few more ingredients, such as garlic and orange zest, just to round out the flavor. Then I use this as a condimento for the fish.
Roasting is an easy way to cook a whole fish. I always use high heat, about 425 degrees, since it crisps up the skin, holding the juices in, and cooks the fish quickly, so it doesn’t dry out.
Whole Roasted Sea Bass with Rosemary Oil
(Serves 2)
1 approximately 2½ pound sea bass, gutted and scaled but with the head left on
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon, sliced into rounds
A big branch of rosemary
3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
½ cup dry white wineFor the rosemary oil:
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
A large sprig of rosemary, the leaves finely chopped
1 garlic clove, very thinly sliced
1 fresh red medium hot peperoncino pepper, seeded and minced
The grated zest from 1 large orange
Sea salt
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Cut three shallow diagonal slashes into each side of the fish. Rub it all over with olive oil, and then season it inside and out with sea salt and black pepper.
Lay the fish in a baking dish big enough to hold it with a little room all around. Stuff the inside of the fish with the lemon slices, rosemary, and garlic. Pour the white wine into the dish, and then give everything an extra drizzle of olive oil.
Bake until the fish is just tender, about 25 minutes. You can check by sticking a small sharp knife into it under the skin along the backbone. The flesh should release from the bone but still offer a little resistance, and it should be white and not gelatinous. What you don’t want is dry and very flaky, so check maybe once after about 20 minutes to see where it’s at.
While the fish is cooking, make the rosemary oil: Pour the olive oil into a small saucepan. Add all the other ingredients, and heat over a medium flame until the oil is quite warm to the touch but not boiling. Now turn off the flame, and let the mix sit there so it can continue to release its flavors.
When the fish is ready, scrape back its skin and fillet the top portion. I find this easiest to do using a chef’s knife and a spatula. Pull out the skeleton, and fillet the bottom half by lifting it out with a spatula. The skin will probably just stick to the dish. Plate both fillets. Gently reheat the rosemary oil if necessary, and spoon it over the fish. Serve right away.
[…] two nets. Reheat gently rosemary oil, if necessary, and spoon over the fish. Serve immediately. Rosemary oil – Google Blog Search by Jürgen Stemper // […]