Italian Fish

I am about to reveal something that is going to make a nation jump up and down and yell: TOLD YOU SO! This month's 'La Cucina Italiana'  publishes the announcement that the mediterranean diet/pyramid is the most healthy and most aspired diet everyone should be following. 


The diet became a fact when an English writer and chef Elizabeth David published a book in 1950 about the mediterranean diet explaining the sobriety and simpleness of the food the Italian people were consuming after the war. The sobriety was of course due to the fact that people didn't have the resources to feed themselves like rich men anymore, because let's be honest, I am sure the Giuseppes and Marias at the time were craving some more meat and fish during the week, but they simply couldn't. So they reached out to vegetables and legumes that they could grow in their own backyard, combined with their beloved pasta made out of flour and eggs and some olive oil extracted from the olives of the neighbours. Unnoticed and definitely unintentional, they created the perfectly balanced meals.


This pyramid is no surprise to anyone who is into food, or who watches the fat percentage on their bodies. But the real surprise in my revealing all these little facts to you, is that UNESCO has included the diet in their Humanitary Heritage list. So there, it is a fact: Italian food IS the best in the world!


Hold your horses Italian friends: this doesn't mean that other foods aren't good or just as pleasurable to make or eat! Plus, I am a firm believer of variety.. NAH! :) But on your behalf, here's a good oven baked Orata fish with some healthy salad to go with.


Ingredients: serves 1

• 1 whole sea bream (Orata) - cleaned
• 1 scallion sliced
• 0,5 lemon sliced
• little handful of parsley
• olive oil
• salt
• lettuce
• tomatoes chopped
• snowpeas 
• vinaigrette: olive oil, balsamico vinegar, 1 teaspoon mustard, 1 teaspoon honey

How to make it:

Heat the oven at 180 degrees Celcius. 

Prepare the fish in an oven tray: put a couple of lemon slices, salt and parsley in the belly of the fish. Place it in the tray. Then you pute the scallion on top of the fish and sprinkle the whole with some olive oil. Voila, you're done! You can now put it in the oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish.

While the fish is cooking, prepare the salad and the vinaigrette in a bowl.

Outcome: easy, fast and super healthy dinner! I usually have this one after a good run because it is the perfect dinner after a good workout session! For your male friends: add some potatoes with the fish or simply have some bread with it.

Italian Fish & Healthy Salad

Buon Appetito

Chef Steph