Roasted Mediterranean Sea Bass on a Seafood and Green Pea Ragout

by Chef Massimo Capra

Branzino is a Mediterranean fish that is easily available at fish shops. It comes whole and must be filleted for this easy, tasty dish.

4 whole branzino, filleted
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons chopped garlic
1 small hot red chili pepper, seeded and
finely chopped
½ cup white wine
12 littleneck clams
12 mussels
8 scampi, shelled
1 medium squid, cleaned and finely julienned
1 cup green peas
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Lightly grease a baking dish with butter and oil. Place fish fillets in dish, season with salt and pepper, drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and bake for 8 minutes or until slightly undercooked. It will continue to cook while resting. Remove from oven, cover with foil and set aside.

Heat a saucepan over medium heat and add remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, garlic and chili and sauté for 30 seconds. Add wine and clams, cover, turn heat to medium low and simmer gently for 7 to 10 minutes or until clams open. Remove clams from pan, reserving pan and cooking liquid for mussels. Remove clam shells, reserving meat.

Add mussels to pan, cover and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes or until mussels open. Remove mussels from pan, again reserving pan and cooking liquid. Remove mussel shells, reserving meat.

Add scampi, squid, peas, oregano and tomatoes to pan and simmer gently for 2 to 3 minutes. Add parsley and butter and return reserved clams and mussels to pan. At this point you should have a light soup with seafood.

Place fish fillets in a rimmed plate and scoop some seafood ragout around it. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and serve at once.

Wine pairing by Beppi Crosariol:

Keep the wine light, crisp and preferably unoaked. Dry whites from Italy, Spain and Greece are ideal, notably inzolia or grillo from Sicily, vermentino from Sardinia and albarino from Spain. Dry rosés from southern France would make for a good choice, too.