Passport & Plate - Bass fillets with herbs, vanilla-pepper sauce
France | Thursday, March 13, 2014 | 2 photos
Ingredients
For 2 persons:
1 mid-sized bass fish (700 to 800 grams, whole fish)
minced parsley, 2 table spoons
minced chive, 2 tea spoons
minced fennel leaves, 2 tea spoons
minced garlic
2 red peppers
50gr ricotta
1 vanilla pod
10cl milk cream
The juice of ¼ lemon
garlic
olive oil, 1 table spoon
How to prepare this recipeStart by preparing the sauce; put your red peppers on a baking tray covered with parchment paper and roast them for 30 minutes in an oven at 180°, rotating them from time to time; when ready, the peppers should be quite soft and the skin should be easily removed.
While cooking the red peppers, heat the milk cream in a small sauce pan, than put the vanilla pod sliced open inside; simmer for 1 minute, than turn the heat off and leave it infusing for at least 20 minutes.
Remove the skin from the roasted peppers and cut them in long and thin pieces, removing the seeds in the middle.
Put the olive oil in a sauce pan at moderate heat, diffusing the oil on the bottom of the pan; add the garlic, in pieces if you prefer; when it starts to fry, add the peppers and their juice, that has drained on the parchment paper; add salt and cook them until they are really soft (it should take about 20 minutes), adding small amounts of water from time to time.
Remove the heat, remove the garlic and add the ricotta, stirring so that cheese is homogeneously diffused through the cream.
Let it cool down, add the cream to the peppers after removing the vanilla pod; squeeze the juice of ¼ lemon into it: this would balance the round vanilla flavor with a fresh final note; stir together to have a result that is homogeneous to the eye, then pass the whole through the mixer and make it rest.
The sauce is done; it is to be mildly heated before serving just warm.
Clean the bass, or have it cleaned by the fish seller: remove the organs, the fins and the scales, then cut the two fillets from both sides. Dispose the fillets on a parchment paper; prepare the mix with all the herbs and spread it onto the fillets; top with salt and drizzled olive oil, then put in the oven at 150° for 10 to 15 minutes.
Serve right after, with the warm cream at the side. A complex white wine can go along: for examplem a Chardonnay-based wine (like Chablis) or a wine from the region of Naples (Falanghina, Lacryma Christi)
The story behind this recipePrendere per la gola: “Grab someone by the throat”. With this most peculiar figure of speech, Italians do not mean to physically aggress you, rather to tempt you with good food. After all, we are renowned for being good at cooking and seducing, doesn't it seem natural to combine the two?
It seemed to me, as I was trying to chase the attention of my gorgeous German teacher: in my plans, displaying my cooking talents gave me a chance of passing time with her and isolate us from the other contestants.
When she accepted, I went to her place with a great recipe in my pocket and all my fears boiling in my head like water before you throw pasta into it. I started by spilling precious tomato sauce on the floor and fighting with her monster cat to remove the stain, then I almost lost some fish on the ground – saved, but at the price of having its smell over my limbs – and finally I realized I did not bring along the spaghetti I wanted to cook. She went out looking for some, leaving me, stinking of fish and under the judgemental (if not hungry) eye of her domestic tiger, with the impression that this was not really going well. The impression got worse as she came back and I could not help mumbling about the size of the spaghetti she bought – thin, while I needed them thick. How many chances would you have given me after that?
As you can imagine, since that night we've been together all the time till today: it turns out she adored the clumsy version of me, did not care about my too-technical remarks about pasta, and we had the most wonderful night opening our hearts to each other, and loving what we discovered.
This is why, every year, we celebrate nothing as a couple, except our anniversary: we have parties with friends at birthdays, part ways at Christmas and don't give a damn about Valentine's, but each January 6th we celebrate that incredible first night, with me creating – with steady hand, now – a new gourmet menu every year.
Here it is this year's main course.
