Baked Fish with Roasted Tomato Sauce

Well, my dears, I guess I'm defaulting to food today as my journals and notebooks are in my other bag in the car and I really don't feel like slogging through the rain to see what I have scribbled down to share. I will share a simple but yummy fish recipe--and keep in mind that this is coming from someone who doesn't care for seafood! I tried the recipe at the Mediterranean cooking class I took about 10 days ago and it's really flavorful and moist.

Baked Fish with Roasted Tomato Sauce:

Serves 4-5

3 cups tomatoes, sliced into thin wedges

1 1/2 onions, julienned

1 TBSP chopped garlic

1 1/2 TBSP olive oil

1 tsp Italian herbs

pinch of orange zest

1 1/2 to 2 pounds white fish, such as tilapia, sole or halibut

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix all ingredients together except fish and spread evenly in a 9" by 13" glass pan. Roast for 30 to 35 minutes, til the vegetables begin to brown. Remove the pan, arrange the fish fillets in and under the vegetables and return to the oven until fish is done, approximately 15 minutes.

Serve with starch of your choice--rice pilaf with toasted almonds is great and so is risotto and who doesn't like mashed potatoes? Well, I actually know someone who doesn't, but she's the exception!

Cook's notes:

Seriously, people--don't get hung up on measuring things UNLESS YOU ARE BAKING. Then you have to be precise. In cooking, however, eyeball your ingredients. You don't need to dirty up a bunch of measuring cups and spoons. Use about 3 large tomatoes--mix it up with some lovely heirloom tomatoes! The onion? Buy a Walla Walla, the kind that barely fit in your hand. A tablespoon of garlic is a couple cloves and so on. Even the orange zest is easy to do (and don't leave it out as it adds a nice hint of sweetness to counter-balance the acid in the tomatoes); if you don't own a zester, maybe you own a cheese grater with the teeny-tiny holes on one side? Run the orange over it several times and there ya go! If you don't have dried mixed Italian herbs, use what you have--oregano? Savory? Thyme, sage, rosemary, marjoram, basil? Use a pinch of this and that--it's your dish so you can season it the way you want and since tomatoes, onions and olive oil go with just about everything and white fish can take any seasoning, DON'T SWEAT IT. Cooking really isn't scary! And you can always ask me your culinary questions!

Eat well,

Holly