Sicilian-Style Sea Bass
Baked sea bass fillets under a punchy Sicilian sauce of cherry tomatoes, olives, capers and chilli — a lean, one-pan, high-protein dinner.
Per serving, as written.
A one-pan Sicilian classic — lean sea bass baked under a bright, briny sauce of cherry tomatoes, olives, capers and a hit of chilli. The sauce does all the work, so the fish stays moist without needing any breading or frying.
Two small things make it taste like it took longer than it did. The parsley goes in twice: the stems early, where they have time to soften and give up their flavour, and the leaves at the very end, so they stay green and fresh rather than stewed. And a splash of white wine before the tomatoes lifts the whole pan — the sharpness cooks off in a minute and leaves the brine and the sweetness behind.
It’s already a lean, high-protein plate, so there isn’t much fat to trim; the olive oil is really the only thing you could ease back. It needs very little changing — or build a bigger meal around it by pairing it with a starch.
Ingredients
For the fish
- 600 g sea bass fillets, cut into 4 or more pieces
For the sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 100 g onion, sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- 150 g cherry tomatoes, halved
- 30 g capers, drained
- 30 g black olives, pitted
- 30 ml dry white wine
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes
- 20 g flat-leaf parsley, stems and leaves separated
- salt and black pepper
Method
- Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Sauté the sliced onion and grated garlic in the olive oil over medium heat until golden.
- Add the olives, capers, red pepper flakes and the finely chopped parsley STEMS, and cook for a minute so the stems soften and release their flavour — they are too fibrous to add at the end, but they carry more of the parsley taste than the leaves do.
- Splash in the white wine and let it bubble away until the sharpness cooks off, then add the cherry tomatoes and cook for a couple more minutes until they start to slump and their juices infuse into the mix.
- Transfer everything to a large baking dish and lay the sea bass fillets on top.
- Spoon some of the sauce over the fish to cover it nicely, season with salt and pepper, and bake uncovered for about 15 minutes, until the fish is just cooked through.
- Scatter the chopped parsley LEAVES over the dish the moment it comes out of the oven, and serve.
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