Cast-Iron Cod in Tomato Sauce
Ah, peak tomato time. How I love thee. Thou almost makes me forget the humidity fogging up my sunglasses every time I step outside and the hell fire chamber that is my car. Right now, tomatoes, particularly the ones I’m lucky enough to go pick from my own garden, feel like a reminder of bounty during an age where it feels like more is taken than given. I’m 100 not here for lame, trite platitudes about “being all in this together, now more than ever, during these trying times”. Nah. I’m here to offer you a little piece of comfort and goodness in the simplest of forms that will hopefully make your day just a tad more delicious. If I could drop off care packages on your doorstep, you bet I would, but alas, I’ll give ya what I can. Today, that happens to be the easiest summery, throw it all in a cast iron pan situation from, duh, my new cookbook. Cod fillets get nestled into a fresh, fast tomato sauce fortified with white wine, herbs, and a touch of spice, then topped with crispy, thyme-laced breadcrumbs, then baked for a hot 15-20 before dinner is on the table. It’s light yet rich, because, hello, rustic tomato sauce and herbed breadcrumbs. It’s truly a feel-good dinner…and don’t we need that, now, more than ever. IN THESE TIMES?? hehe. I say YES.
This dish is so delicious served alongside rice, couscous, quinoa, orzo, or just with tons of crusty bread for soakin’ up all that SAWWWCE.
So, obviously, this recipe is a 30 minute situation, as goes with the namesake of my book, but I’ve been thinking, and I really want to throw in some tidbits here on the blog that coincide with these recipes, but didn’t make their way into the book, like…Things I add when I don’t care whether it takes 30 minutes or more, pescatarian/vegetarian substitutions, NON-pescatarian/vegetarian substitutions, things I learned through testing that we just did not have the word capacity for, haha.
In light of that! I’ll share one here: This recipe was inspired by a really yummy halibut my mom makes that involves a fresh tomato sauce with fennel. It is SO. GOOD. However, fennel takes a hot second to get it to where I want it to be in the caramelization process prior to adding the tomatoes/everything as above. Should you want to take this dish to the next-lev, thinly slice one small fennel bulb into 1/4” thick slices and toss it in with your onions.
That’s it. Just a little extra somethin’-something’, simply ‘cause I’m really happy you’re here.
