Aubrie Pick for The Wall Street Journal, Food Styling by Amanda Anselmino, Prop Styling by Anna Raben
Grilled Sea Bass With Olive and Pistachio Salsa
Grilling whole sea bass, bone in, helps prevent overcooking. Once the fish is cooked, it’s easy to peel the fillets away from the bones. Served with a lemon wedge, this simple meal needs little more than a salad to round it out into a memorable feast.
Total Time: 30 minutes
serves: 4-6
Ingredients
- 2 whole branzini (Mediterranean sea bass), 1½-2 pounds each, scaled and cleaned
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1½ teaspoons red pepper flakes
- 2 lemons
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
- ⅓ cup shelled pistachios, toasted
- 1 cup Cerignola olives, pitted
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 cloves garlic, minced or finely grated
Directions
- Heat a clean grill to medium-high. Season fishes’ cavities with salt, pepper and ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes each. Slice 1 lemon into ¼-inch rounds. Stuff cavities with lemon rounds and rosemary sprigs. Brush exteriors lightly with olive oil.
- Make the salsa: In a food processor, pulse pistachios to roughly chop into small, irregular pieces. Transfer nuts to a bowl. Pulse olives to chop to approximate size of nuts. Fold olives into pistachios. Stir in oregano, garlic, remaining red pepper flakes and ½ cup olive oil. Season with lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.
- Lightly oil grill grate. Lay fish onto grate and cook until skin blisters and releases from grate and flesh is tender and warmed through, 8-10 minutes per side.
- To serve, fillet fish and discard bones. Serve warm with salsa spooned overtop.
Adapted from Doug Psaltis
This recipe was published in: