Easy Whole Roasted Fish

  A whole fish, with all of its bones still inside where they belong, is going to taste better than a filet. This is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. You can adapt this recipe by laying 2 filets on top of each other, but its nowhere near as much fun.

 

Ingredients:

All the fresh herbs you can lay your hands on: parsley, marjoram, oregano, thyme, sage, mint (yes, a little mint is a wonderful addition), rosemary.

1 fish, such as an orata, small sea bass, red snapper

Tiniest sprinkle of salt

Some tin foil

 That’s it.

 Take your clean and gutted whole fish and lay it on a sheet of tin foil large enough to wrap the fish, stuff all the fresh herbs into the cavity. Sprinkle both sides of the fish with a little bit of salt.  If you are using filets, place the herbs between the two fillets.

Wrap the fish up, taking care to keep the seams of the foil wrap facing up. Add another layer of foil, also facing up. This keeps the juices from dripping out, and makes it easier to unwrap and eat later.

Now you have choices. This is a wonderful preparation for the grill. Place the fish packages (one fish per package) on the grill and turn once or twice.

Or you can roast the fish in a preheated oven, 350F, for approximately 30 minutes, depending on the size of the fish. Filets should take about 20 minutes.  This is a forgiving recipe, so if you are worried about the fish being done, turn the oven off and leave the fish in the oven for another 10 minutes, it won’t dry out because you’ve sealed in all the juices in the foil.

A variation on this preparation is to include a few tomatoes and potatoes and then you have an all in one dish and very little cleanup, which totally works for me! Dice the potatoes into small bite size pieces and par boil for about 5 minutes. Lay on top of the fish along with small tomatoes, sliced in half. 

You can either wrap the fish in foil as above, or in oven parchment paper, but if  you use paper, then don’t cook the fish on the grill, ok?

 

Simple, delicious and an excellent choice for that quick and easy summer, don’t-want-to-be-in-the-kitchen mood.