Sunday, March 29, 2015

Cod Puttanesca

This is an easy family meal to make. And there is plenty of left over sauce to save for a pasta meal another day or freeze, which makes our cooking-at-home lives much easier!


Ingredients for the sauce:
3 cups of your own pasta sauce, or 1 25 oz jar of organic marinara
1 28 oz can of organic Italian whole peeled plum tomatoes
    (I like the texture these add. Just squish them up with your hands before adding to the pot.)
1 12 oz jar pitted Kalamata olives, drained
2 tablespoons nonpareil capers
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (Dark or light. I used light.)
About 1/2 cup loosely packed chopped parsley and basil, mixed. This is fresh cooking so
    it really doesn't matter -- it can be all parsley or all basil. Whatever is on hand. Whatever you like.
1 large shallot
2-3 cloves garlic, depending on size and how garlicky you want the sauce to taste
1/2 teaspoon or so of red pepper flakes, to taste
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (The olives, capers, and canned/jarred tomatoes, if not
   low-sodium, could already add enough salt.)

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Add everything to the pot, bring to a boil, stir around then simmer while preparing the fish.


For our meal, I used four large fillets of fresh local cod that I cut in half. There is a lot of sauce for more fish. If using less fish, freeze the leftover sauce for other meals. 

I sprinkled a little extra virgin olive oil on the bottom of the casserole dish, added the fish, ladled the sauce over the top of the fish in amount that looked good and baked at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes, or until the fish looked done.


This cod puttanesca tastes great with simple oven roasted potatoes or crusty bread. I love roasting potatoes with an Italian herb mix and rosemary.


Organic and local as much as possible.