This is a dead easy, colourful and delicious fish supper. Either make or buy decent pesto (just google pesto in my recipe section), serve it over a fillet of roast cod (haddock, hake or salmon) with cherry tomatoes roasted with black olives, slivers of garlic and a splash of balsamico and another of olive oil. Lovely with new potatoes and/or peas and beans as in my photo. Quantities given are for two, but this recipe is easy to scale up or down for 1 or 10.
Serves 2
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 15 min
2 thick fillets cod
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon
20 cherry tomatoes
1 new season garlic clove
10 pitted black olives (I like Crespo in a sachet)
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (I like Belazu, which is syrupy)
Turn the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Pierce each tomato with the point of a small sharp knife (this avoids them bursting as they cook) as you put them in a small oven proof frying pan or similar roasting tin that can hold the ingredients snugly. Peel and thinly slice the garlic in rounds. Scatter garlic and olives between the tomatoes and splash with balsamico and 2 tbsp olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 10 minutes, checking after 5; you want the tomatoes squashy but not squashed. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Smear the fish with remaining olive oil, place in a small roasting tin and squeeze over half the lemon. Season with salt and pepper and roast for 10-12 minutes, checking after 8; you want to be able to slide your small, sharp knife through the fish without resistance. When done, leave for a couple of minutes before serving on warm plates with a generous dollop of pesto, a lemon wedge, the tomatoes and whatever else you have decided on (co-ordinating its cooking to be ready at the same time as the fish).