Sea Bass al’Aqua Pazza

This is my simple take on a gorgeous dish I once ate in Italy.  You know how it is, sitting in a beautiful piazza on a hot summer’s night, everything is amazing.  It still tastes pretty good on a drizzly Irish evening though and looks impressive even though it’s REALLY easy.  If you can’t bear to eat whole fish, just use fillets, cooked skin side up, instead.  You will need to cook the other ingredients first for 5-10 minutes so they soften before adding the fish fillets.  Fillets would take about 10 minutes to cook through wheareas whole fish take longer.  See the bottom of this recipe for why it’s great for you.

Serves 2

120ml or 1/2 cup dry white wine
3 dsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and roughly sliced
2 small or 1 medium seabass (or bream if you prefer), gutted and cleaned
12-14 cherry tomatoes
3-4 large sprigs fresh basil
Freshly ground black pepper
A heavy-bottomed pot/frying pan with lid
To serve:
4 generous handfuls or cups of broccoli florets/green beans

1. Lay the fish in the pot (cut off the head first if you need to to get the fish flat in the pot, or if you don’t like seeing the head on your dinner plate).
2. Cut each cherry tomato quarter to half the way through – this allows the juice to flavour the whole dish as it cooks – and add to the pan with the wine, olive oil, garlic, basil and a few twists of black pepper.
3. Put the lid on, place on a medium heat and simmer for about 20-25 minutes (depending on the size of the fish) until the fish is tender and a skewer easily pierces it right through.  Pull the pan off the heat and leave it covered while you steam your greens.
4. Serve the fish with the greens with the winey herby juices spooned over.

If you’re not wanting to lose weight you could also add a few baby boiled potatoes.

Why this is good for you:
White fish is a great source of high quality protein which is needed for repair and maintenance of your whole body, including your skin, hair and digestive system.  Olive oil, herbs and tomatoes are rich in antioxidants which also aid repair and slow ageing.  Green veg are rich in magnesium which is crucial for  keeping stress at bay.