Sea bream with fennel bulbs

From the Silver Spoon

Ingredients

Serves 4

4 fennel bulbs, trimmed and halved
1 fresh thyme sprig
1 kg sea bream, scaled and cleaned
1 garlic clove,
olive oil for drizzling
juice of 2 lemons strained
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Cook the fennel in salted water for 10 minutes, then drain. Put the thyme sprig in the cavity of the fish, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the fennel all round the fish and bake, turning halfway through cooking, for about 30 minutes. Drizzle the fish with the lemon juice and serve.

One of the rare times that I bought fish from the fishmonger counter at a supermarket. It’s so convenient to have someone doing the scaling and cleaning for you. Oddly enough, the lady at the counter kept asking me whether I wanted the head.

Back to the fish, another one of those simple recipes which focuses on the freshness of the ingredients, in this case, the sea bream. Oh and I used chopsticks to eat this dish despite it being Italian, they are just more precise than fork and knives.