2000s Recipes + Menus

Sea Bass with Marinated Vegetables

Serves6
  • Active time:4 min
  • Start to finish:1 hr (plus 1 day for marinating)
ADAPTED FROM JEAN–PIERRE MOULLÉ, TWO BORDELAIS, BORDEAUX, FRANCE
May 2008
Your market basket loaded with produce, olive oil, and fish, you saunter home to your idyllic farmhouse and marinate the vegetables. The following evening, you invite your friends over. Berets optional.

For marinated vegetables

  • 1 ripe medium tomato
  • 1 garlic clove, smashed
  • 4 basil leaves
  • 1 fresh thyme spring
  • 6 green olives, such as picholine, pitted and chopped
  • 12 Niçoise olives, pitted and chopped
  • 1 tablespoon drained capers
  • 1 celery rib, peeled and diced
  • 1/2 small fennel bulb, stalks discarded and bulb diced
  • 1 small zucchini, diced
  • 1 red bell pepper, diced
  • 1 green bell pepper, diced
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • About 2 cups extra-virgin olive oil, divided
  • 1 pinch saffron, crumbled
  • 1 lemon, peel and pitch cut off and lemon quartered and diced

For fish

  • 6 (6-oz) pieces sea bass or striped bass fillet with skin, small bones removed
  • 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
  • Coarse sea salt to taste

Marinate Vegetables :

  • Core tomato and cut a shallow X in bottom, then blanch in boiling water 10 seconds. Transfer with a slotted spoon to an ice bath to stop cooking. Keep water at a boil.
  • Lift out tomato (reserve ice bath), then peel, seed, and dice. Put in a bowl with garlic, basil, thyme, olives, and capers.
  • Blanch celery, fennel, and zucchini in boiling water 30 seconds, then drain and transfer to ice bath. When vegetables are chilled, drain and stir into tomato mixture.
  • Cook bell peppers and onion in 2 tablespoons oil in a large heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Cool to room temperature, then stir into vegetables along with saffron and enough remaining oil to cover (about 2 cups). Marinate, covered and chilled, 24 hours.

Prepare fish:

  • Preheat oven to 450ºF with rack in middle.
  • Put fish, skin side up, in a shallow baking pan and pat dry. Sprinkle with sea salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, then drizzle with a little oil. Roast fish until just cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, gently warm half of vegetable mixture and stir in lemon. Serve fish topped with vegetables and sprinkled with chives and coarse sea salt.
Cooks’ note: Leftover vegetables can be chilled up to 3 days and served over pasta or salad or with eggs.

Photograph by Romulo Yanes

Keywords
cooking school,
seafood,
jean-pierre moulle,
two bordelais,
herbs

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