Erica De Mane

A caper shrub growing out of a wall in Pantelleria.

I’m still finding tomatoes at the Union Square Greenmarket. The other day I took home a buck’s worth in a soggy paper bag. They were all cracked and oozing, their skins already slipping off. What a mess. But they did smell like tomatoes, to their credit, tomatoes edging toward a sweet, rotting death. I pulled their skins off easily, didn’t even have to boil them. They weren’t really edible raw, so I figured I’d make some kind of a cooked sauce. If you’ve got summer tomatoes put up, or are inclined to buy a can of good Italian plums, you can use those instead of my saved-from-the-crypt variety.

After squeezing the seeds from my fragrant bowl of mush, I began to think about transforming them into a gentle red agrodolce. A little sweet and a little acid. Red wine and a drizzle of honey did the deed. I came up with a real old-fashioned cooked sauce, one too concentrated and intense for a pasta sauce. I made that other type of Italian sauce, a condimento, something reduced and used to accompany fish or vegetables, possibly grilled lamb, or to spread onto crostini.

Capers were the flavor I chose to highlight, so I used nice ones. I like the salt-packed Sicilian ones they produce on the dry, windy island of Pantelleria. Gustiamo carries an excellent brand.  They need a bit of soaking to remove their salt and reveal their floral beauty.

I considered different ways of cooking the cod, baking or broiling, but ultimately decided on a pan sauté, giving the fish a thin, spice-infused coating of flour to crisp it up and hold it together (cod can flake a bit). Cod is easiest to flip and handle when you have thick fillets, so try and find those. You could do the dish with monkfish. That would be really lovely. Either way.

To round out this low-carb dinner, trying serving it with escarole sautéed with garlic and a bit of hot chili. That worked for me.

Pan-Seared Cod with Red Wine Caper Sauce

(Serves 4)

For the sauce:

Extra-virgin olive oil
1 large shallot, cut into fine dice
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
1 fresh bay leaf
5 thyme sprigs, the leaves lightly chopped
2 small rosemary sprigs, leaves chopped
½ cup dry, non-oaky red wine
About 4 medium tomatoes, skinned, drained, and chopped, or a 15-ounce can of whole tomatoes, well chopped and lightly drained
½ cup chicken broth or water
½ teaspoon honey
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
A palmful of salt-packed capers, soaked and rinsed
About 6 large sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, the leaves lightly chopped

For the cod:

4 thick chunks codfish fillet, skinned (about ½ pound, or a little less, each)
About ½ cup all-purpose flour
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A big pinch of sugar
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground coriander seed
Extra-virgin olive oil
Lemon wedges

To make the sauce: Set a large skillet over medium heat. Add a good drizzle of olive oil. Add the shallot, and let it soften for a minute or so. Add the garlic, allspice, bay leaf, thyme,  and rosemary, and sauté to release their flavors. Add the red wine, and let it bubble for a minute. Add the tomatoes and chicken broth, and let cook, uncovered, at a good bubble for about 5 minutes. Add the honey, and season with salt and pepper. Cook another 5 minutes. The sauce should have thickened a bit. Turn off the heat, and stir in the butter and the capers.

On a big plate, mix together the flour, salt, black pepper, sugar, allspice, and coriander. Coat the cod pieces on all sides in the flour mix.

Put a heavy-bottomed skilled on the stove (cast iron is good), and turn the heat to medium-high. Add a generous amount of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the cod, browning it well on both sides, turning it gently. Cook until just firm but still tender, about 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish.

Reheat the sauce, and add the parsley.

Plate the fish, and top it with a big spoonful of the sauce. Garnish with a lemon wedge. Serve with escarole or another well-seasoned green vegetable.