Yesterday I walked over to Whole Foods to look for bing cherries. As usual, I got distracted.

I had planned on having chicken for dinner, but as I was walking by the seafood counter I saw a beautiful whole red snapper. It looked really fresh: clean, slime-free skin, perfectly clear eyes, and a mild oceany (but not fishy) smell. The monger said it had come in that morning, so I asked her to filet it for me. I grabbed a big bag of baby spinach to cook along with it and got out of there. (No cherries to be had.)

When I got home, here’s what I did:

I seasoned the fish on both sides with freshly ground black pepper. The fish is naturally salty, so I didn’t season it with salt. I wrapped each fillet with two pieces of sliced pancetta and secured them with a couple of toothpicks.

I heated a tablespoons of olive oil in a large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When it was hot, I added the fish to the pan.

I fought the instinct to start moving the fillets around (always hard to do), and just left the pan alone to let the fillets develop a nice crust. After about three minutes, I carefully turned the fillets over with a spatula to crisp on the other side.

The pancetta didn’t really stay intact; some of the fat melted away, which was fine as I figured it was flavoring the fish. After another three minutes or so I slid the pan into a preheated 400F oven.

After 10 minutes the fish was done. The pancetta gave it really good flavor, though I think pork flavor goes best with meatier, oily fish like halibut, cod and swordfish. The red snapper was a little bit overwhelmed by the pork. It was an interesting but not ideal combination.

Posted by brys in craving, ingredients | | Subscribe to this feed