<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
March 19, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Easy fish dinner, all wrapped up

The Columbian
Published:

Fresh fish cooked on the grill is one of summer’s simple pleasures. All you need to do to make it delicious is season it with salt and pepper, cook it and finish with a squeeze of lemon juice. Dinner, done.

But with just the tiniest extra effort, you can turn that basic fillet into a spectacular, full-flavored dish. Here, two easy steps make it so: adding a smear of sun-dried tomato tapenade and wrapping it in a leaf of Swiss chard.

The tapenade, basically a kind of quick spread, is a mixture of sun-dried tomatoes, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, garlic, oil and vinegar, all whirred in a food processor. It has an intense, savory flavor with a hint of sweetness, and it provides a bold punch of color.

The accompanying recipe makes more tapenade than you’ll need for four fillets, so you’ll have some left over to spread on toasted baguette slices and top with mozzarella cheese and basil as an appetizer, to use as a sandwich spread or to stir into hummus, to name a few possibilities. (The tapenade can be made weeks in advance.)

When you are ready to cook the fish, spread some tapenade on top of each fillet, wrap a stemmed Swiss chard leaf around each one and grill (or sauté in a pan) until the fish is flaky, the tapenade has warmed and the chard is charred.

Here, I used cod for its meatiness, but you can use any kind of firm, white fish. Just make sure the fillet is not more than an inch thick, so the leaf doesn’t burn before the fish is done.

Chard-Wrapped Cod With Sun-Dried Tomato Tapenade

4 servings

You’ll have leftover tapenade, which can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks. From dietitian and cookbook author Ellie Krieger.

For the tapenade:

12 sun-dried tomatoes (not oil-packed; 1.4 ounces total)

1 cup boiling water

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1 small clove garlic

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

1/8 teaspoon salt, plus more as needed

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more as needed

For the fish:

2 large Swiss chard leaves (2.5 ounces total)

4 skinless 1-inch thick cod fillets (4 to 5 ounces each)

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the tapenade: Place sun-dried tomatoes in a bowl; cover with boiling water and let them soak for 15 minutes. Drain, reserving 6 tablespoons of soaking water. Transfer the drained tomatoes to a food processor, along with cheese, garlic, 3 tablespoons of oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and reserved soaking water. Puree to form a smooth paste; the yield is about 1 cup.

For the fish: Cut out and discard the chard stems, so that only the leaves remain. Lay out leaves, shiny sides facing down. Season the fish with the salt and pepper on both sides. Spread a generous tablespoon of the tapenade on top of each fillet. Invert the fillets, centering them on each chard leaf. Fold/wrap the leaves to form 4 fish parcels, turning them seam side down.

Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the fish parcels, seam side down. Cook for 3 minutes; the tapenade will bubble at the edges of the leaves a bit, the leaves will soften and turn bright green, and the fish will begin to turn opaque. Use two thin spatulas to turn over each fish parcel. Cook for 3 minutes, until the fish is opaque and just cooked through.

Serve warm.

Per serving: 150 calories, 21 g protein, 2 g carbohydrates, 6 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 50 mg cholesterol, 230 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 1 g sugar

Loading...