Recipe below: Roasted Red Snapper with Fennel Rosemary Vinaigrette
It has been pouring here on and off for about two weeks. My basil is flooded and my garlic soaked. I’m worried. My garden needs a dryout. And I’ve been dreaming of fancy outdoor grilling, but due to all this rain, it has not yet happened. I love doing a whole fish on the grill. It’s a romantic experience, and with all the herbs I’ve got growing, providing they’re not all drenched out, it can be high-end fragrant. I will get out there soon, I promise you. In the meantime, I’ve been at my oven, which is also a very good place to cook a whole fish.
As you’ve all heard a zillion times, cooking fish whole brings out more flavor than just doing a fillet. I don’t like to beat you over the head with this, but it’s true. Everything stays contained under the skin—the fat, the natural moisture, the gelatinous stickiness from the bones, plus all the flavors you stuff inside it. I think the hesitation for most people is not knowing when the fish is cooked, but that’s not hard to gauge. I like a high-heat roast, so I’ll go with 425, even 450 degrees. My 3½ pound red snapper took about 20 minutes. I started checking after about 15 minutes by inserting a paring knife alongside the backbone to see if the meat could be lifted from the bone but stay pretty much in one piece. Once it could, the fish was ready. I didn’t let it get into “easily flaked” territory, especially since a fish will continue to cook a little after you take it out.
I went to the market looking for my favorite little rougets (called red mullets in this country), but my fish guy at the Chelsea Market was all out. I guess I had the color red on my mind, so I instead went with a red snapper, a beautiful fish, very mild and white-fleshed. For flavoring I returned to my much-loved fennel rosemary blend, a tradition for porchetta that works well with all sorts of seafood as well. Fennel alone is, of course, classic with fish, but when you blend it with rosemary the flavor is fuller yet not overly assertive. A deep perfume develops.
Roasted Red Snapper with a Fennel Rosemary Vinaigrette
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 whole red snapper, gutted and scaled (mine was about 3½ pounds)
Salt
Black pepper
A handful of stalks from wild fennel, or 1 large bulb fennel sliced lengthwise, plus a bunch of fronds
About 10 large rosemary sprigs
2 lemons, 1 sliced into half rounds, the other cut in half
3 whole summer garlic cloves, lightly crushed
A splash of dry vermouth
A teaspoon of fennel pollen
5 or so flat-leaf parsley sprigs
Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
Get out a small sheet pan or a large roasting pan, and drizzle in some olive oil. Coat the fish well, inside and out, with olive oil, and season it with salt and black pepper. Place the fennel stalks or slices in the pan, and lay the fish on top. Stuff the fennel fronds and half of the rosemary inside the fish. Stick as many lemon rounds as you can inside. The rest place around the fish. Stick the garlic inside the fish. Drizzle the vermouth over the fish.
Put the fish in the oven.
While the fish is roasting, chop the remaining rosemary well. Put it in a small bowl, along with the fennel pollen, about ½ cup of good olive oil, and the juice from the cut lemon. Chop the parsley, and add it to the sauce. Season with salt and black pepper, and give it a good stir. Let the sauce sit to develop flavor while the fish continues to cook.
My fish took about 20 minutes, but you’ll want to check by sticking a knife in along the backbone. If the meat pulls away from the bone but stays more or less in one piece, it’s ready. You don’t want to cook it any further than that. If it’s really flaky, it’s slightly overcooked. Depending on the size of your fish, I’d start checking after 15 minutes.
Let the fish sit for about 5 minutes so it can settle. Pull the skin off, and fillet the top side, plating it. Pull out the skeleton, and lift the other side off its skin onto another plate. Take one of the garlic cloves out of the fish, and mince it. Add it to the vinaigrette, giving it a stir. Spoon the vinaigrette over the fish. Eat it right away.
Erica De Mane 
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