Mediterranean Swordfish!

I recently bought a new cookbook when Deb and Steve were visiting. It is filled with wonderful Irish recipes including this one, which Deb and I tweaked slightly. In the cookbook–“Recipes and Stories from Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way” they call the recipe: BAKED WHITE FISH WITH BLACK OLIVES AND ROASTED TOMATO SAUCE. Earlier in the day we were at the Galway Market and bought some fabulous brined black olives, semi-sundried tomatoes, and very fresh swordfish, which inspired us to put this dish together.

Ingredients:
2 red peppers, seeded and sliced into chunks
1 large red onion (We used white as I didn’t have a red onion.)
6 plum tomatoes (Couldn’t find plum tomatoes at the Market so we used 3 cups of the sweetest cherry tomatoes.)
Olive Oil, as needed; about 1/4 cup
Generous salt/pepper
1 400 g tin chopped tomatoes (We omitted the canned tomatoes as we had so many fresh cherries.)
75 g pitted black olives (about 1/2 cup Calamata’s or other brined olive)
4 200 g skinless, boneless white fish fillets, such as cod, halibut or haddock (We chose 4 large swordfish steaks as they looked the best at the Market.)
Pine nuts or almonds, toasted for garnish
We also added 4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped, and about 3/4 cup of freshly chopped herbs: Thyme, rosemary, parsley, sage, basil.

Yes we are cooking in our ‘comfy cozies’; aka PJ’s!

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 220C (425 degrees F). Arrange the peppers, onions, semi-sundried tomatoes, tomatoes, and garlic in a large casserole. Drizzle liberally with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast until aromatic and edges are slightly charred; about 20 minutes.

Here is the sauce after 20 minutes of roasting.

Since we were using all fresh ingredients we roasted the sauce for about 40 minutes in total. After 20 minutes add the minced herbs and olives, and roast for 20 minutes more. Season the fish with salt and pepper, then add the fish filets to the sauce.

Lay the swordfish into the sauce…

Cover the fish completely with the sauce.

Cook until the fish filets are cooked through. The swordfish took about 18 minutes more, but it will depend on the thickness of your fish.

Deb toasting the pine nuts.

Me plating. We topped with the toasted pine nuts and chives.

The overall cooking time in the original recipe was less I believe because it used canned tomatoes, which would break down the sauce quicker. I really liked the chunkiness of the sauce and the freshness of the ingredients we used. It was rich and flavorful. We served with a whole wheat French bread slightly toasted with olive oil. Original recipe calls for serving over rice or pasta as that sauce was much thinner than ours. As with so many dishes like this there is much latitude for adjustments!

And here is the wine we served with dinner. Thanks Steve!