The dream of my life is still to live near the sea and go out each day with my boat and a rod and catch just enough fish for supper. But when Plaxy and I are on holiday in Puglia the next best thing is to go out each day and see what fresh fish there is: maybe a dorade, a gilt-head bream, a John Dory, or some little sea bass (warm-water Mediterranean fish are always
smaller than ones from cold water). Then my favourite thing is to bake the fish whole on the bone, maybe with some tomato and olive oil, rosemary, fennel, garlic, chilli, even some sliced potatoes.
Cooking fish on the bone conserves the natural flavour in a more profound way, since it cooks from the outside in. The skin protects the most sensitive flesh around the bone, which because it has no direct contact with the heat or with oil doesn’t pick up flavours in the same way as it would do if you pan-fried it.
Makes 6
small courgettes 2 , sliced
medium potatoes 3, sliced
onion 1, sliced
fennel bulbs 2, sliced
cloves garlic 5
green chilli 1, chopped
sprigs parsley 2
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
lemons 2
sprigs rosemary 2
tablespoons olive oil 6
large sea bass 1, around 1.5kg, cleaned
white wine 1 glass (70ml)
1 Preheat the oven to 180ÆC/gas 4. 2 Mix all the vegetables with the garlic, chilli and parsley in a large roasting tray. 3 Season and drizzle with half the olive oil. 4 Season the cavity of the sea bass. Slice one of the lemons and put inside, along with the rosemary. 5 Lay the fish on top of the vegetables and pour the white wine over the top. Sprinkle on some sea salt and bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, depending on the size of the fish. To test that it is cooked, insert the tip of a knife under the fillets and it should come out hot. 6 To serve, remove the skin and then lift off the top piece of fillet to one side. Then carefully lift off the piece of belly fillet – this is where most of the bones are concentrated, so lift these out. Now you can run a fork under the backbone to release it and lift it out, then remove the remaining pieces of fillet. 7 Drizzle the fish with the juice of the remaining lemon juice and the rest of the extra virgin olive oil and serve with the vegetables.
