A simple and elegant one-tray dish for Good Friday, or whever you need
Sweet, juicy, end-of-season tomatoes are roasted with capers and vinegar, their juices are soaked up by plump butter beans and firm white fish fillets. It’s a simple, elegant, one-tray recipe.
Cooking is one of the greatest joys in my life. It is my self-care, a creative process where I can focus and be present. Yet there are many times when I wholeheartedly embrace a dinner that requires minimal preparation, little hands-on cooking time and hardly any clean-up. Over time, I have found that there is equal rapture to be had in this form of cooking too.
This one-tray fish, a fabulous dish to consider ahead of Good Friday when so many people eat fish, fits neatly into this idea.
Sweet, juicy, end of season tomatoes are roasted with capers and vinegar to create a fragrant, sweet and sour sauce. Their juices are soaked up by plump butter beans and firm white fish fillets. It’s a simple, elegant, one-tray recipe that’s made for midweek dining.
Like all one-tray dishes, this is a versatile recipe. Feel free to play around with type of fish and quantities if you are feeding more mouths. I love ling for its firm texture and mild flavour, but ocean trout or salmon (I like New Zealand salmon best) works well too. Just avoid anything too delicate and soft. You want a fish that stands up in the sauce. I always look for thick pieces of fish from the middle of the body, rather than the thinner end pieces. Either way, take note of the cooking time; thinner, smaller pieces of fish obviously take less time.
I have spoken before about my love of canned beans. Here they provide substance and ease to the dish. While butter beans are my favourite, chickpeas and cannellini beans can be swapped in too. Mostly, I don’t serve much more with this than some dressed leaves or steamed greens but if I do decide to roll this out for entertaining or something a bit special, my zucchini ribbon salad makes a nice adornment.
One tray fish, tomato and butter bean tray bake
Ingredients
- 500g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 3 spring onions, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon capers, drained
- 3 garlic cloves, grated
- 2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- ½ teaspoon caster sugar
- ½ teaspoon dried chilli (optional)
- 1 teaspoon salt flakes
- Black pepper, to season
- 20g butter, cold
- 2 thick fillets firm white fish, such as ling
- 1 x 400g can butter beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- Basil leaves, to serve
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200C (180C fan-forced). Place the tomatoes, spring onions, capers and garlic in a deep baking dish (roughly 20x30cm or 3 litres). Add olive oil, vinegar, sugar, dried chilli if using, salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Roast the tomatoes for 15 minutes until they have started to collapse and release their juice.
- Meanwhile, drain and rinse the butter beans. Remove tomatoes from the oven. Add beans to your roasted tomatoes and gently toss to combine. Nestle the pieces of fish into the tomato and bean mixture. Divide the cold butter into two portions and add one on top of each fish fillet (if using more fillets, increase butter to roughly 10g per piece of fish). Season fish generously with salt and pepper.
- Roast until the fish is cooked through and flakes easily with a fork, about 10-12 minutes.
- Sprinkle lemon zest over dish and squeeze lemon juice over the fish. Garnish with basil leaves. Serve the fish immediately, spooning the tomatoes and beans over each fillet.
Serves 2