Branzino al Forno
Nothing hides on a whole roasted fish, which is exactly why this dish appears on the menu the way it does -- unfussed, and trusting the branzino to be good enough on its own that it doesn't need help.
Ingredients
- 1 whole branzino (sea bass), about 700g–1kg, cleaned and scaled
- 1 lemon, sliced
- Fresh rosemary, thyme, and parsley
- 3 cloves garlic, smashed
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Coarse sea salt and black pepper
Serves 2.
Cookware Required
- una teglia da forno (a baking sheet or roasting dish)
- un coltello affilato (a sharp knife, for scoring)
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F). Pat the fish dry, inside and out. Season the cavity generously with salt and pepper, then fill it with the lemon slices, herbs, and smashed garlic.
Score the skin two or three times on each side with a sharp knife -- this lets the heat reach the flesh more evenly, and keeps the skin from tearing unpredictably as it cooks. Rub the outside with olive oil and a little more salt.
Roast for twenty-five to thirty minutes, until the flesh flakes easily at the thickest point near the spine and the skin has crisped. Let it rest for a few minutes, then bring it to the table whole, and fillet it there rather than in the kitchen.
Quando Va Storto
If the fish comes out dry, it stayed in past the point it had already flaked; pull it the moment it does, and trust that test over a fixed time. If the skin turns soggy instead of crisp, the oven wasn't hot enough, or the fish sat too long before serving and steamed itself under its own heat. And if the flavor seems bland despite all the herbs stuffed inside, the cavity wasn't seasoned generously enough -- that's the fish's one real chance to be seasoned from the inside out, and it's easy to be too timid with it.
Una Storia dalla Sala
A man insisted, over his date's increasingly urgent objections, on ordering a heavy red to go with her delicate branzino, dismissing her suggestion of a white as needless fuss over “rules mostly invented to sell more expensive bottles.” Her mortification was visible enough from across the room that Rosa, clearing a nearby table, very nearly intervened purely out of secondhand embarrassment on her behalf.
He took one sip of the red alongside a forkful of the fish, made an expression he couldn't quite hide fast enough, and switched to the white within the minute, without acknowledging the reversal out loud. His date, Rosa reports, did not let him forget it for the rest of the meal.