Baked sea bass with roasted Mediterranean vegetables

This baked sea bass is a simple, sun-soaked dish that brings together classic Mediterranean flavours in one dish.  Roasted red peppers and tomatoes melt into the tender potatoes, while anchovies quietly dissolve, adding depth and savouriness without overpowering the bass.  Cooked in the oven, the sea bass emerges moist and delicate, absorbing the fragrant juices around it—an unfussy yet elegant recipe that feels both comforting and special.

It can be served as a main course or as a starter.

Preparation Time: 20 Mins

Cooking Time: 50 Mins

Total Time: 70 Mins

Ingredients

For 2 servings…

1 pinch            Saffron strands        

450 gms           Potatoes  - cut into 1 cm slices  

                     Salt          

2                    Tomatoes  - plum, quartered lengthways 

30 gms            Anchovy fillets        

70 ml              Stock  - chicken        

2                    Peppers  - red - cut into 8        

4 cloves            Garlic  - sliced into 3 slices       

4 sprigs            Oregano    

40 ml              Olive oil    

                     Pepper  - freshly ground, black 

1                    Sea bass    

Method

Heat an oven to 200°C

Place the saffron in a cup, pour over 2 tablespoons of hot water and leave to soak.

Put the potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water and par-boil for 7 minutes.  Drain well and arrange them in a narrow strip over the base of a roasting dish large enough to hold the sea bass.  The potatoes should form a bed for the fish - leaving plenty of room on either side for the red peppers.

Scatter the tomatoes and anchovy fillets over the potatoes and then pour over the saffron water and stock.  Scatter the pieces of red pepper down either side of the potatoes and sprinkle over the garlic, oregano sprigs and olive oil.  Season everything well and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

Cut the fish 5 times down each side and then cut it in the opposite direction on just one side to give a criss-cross pattern.  Rub it generously with some olive oil, season well and then rest it on top of the potatoes.

Return the dish to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes, until the fish is cooked through.

Serve with the roasted vegetables.

Wine recommendations

          A white wine.

  Conventional

           Picpoul de Pinet

  Interesting

           Chablis

           Jurançon sec