Brill fillets on spicy tomatoes

Recipe for breaded brill fillets on spicy tomato salad

Preparation and cooking

• - Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
• - Bake breaded fillets.
  Coat your fish fillets with cornmeal. If you don't like cornmeal, replace it with plain breadcrumbs.
  Fish fillets are always wet and easily collect flour or breadcrumbs even if they are not dipped into beaten egg before.
  Line a baking pan with water paper and grease it with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Read below, among notes, my trick to use less olive oil for this step.
  Place your fillets in the pan.
  Bake for about 20 minutes.
  Turn over brill fillets after 10 minutes.
• - Prepare spicy tomato.
  Meanwhile peel tomatoes without discarding their juice that contains very important active principles.
  Clean bell pepper and onion.
  Wash fresh chives.
  Chop all these vegetables and dress with 2 teaspoons olive oil, Tabasco sauce and salt.

Just before serving

• - Arrange chopped vegetables in a serving dish.
  Place fish fillets on the top and dress them with remaining olive oil and salt. Read below, on notes, my trick to use less olive oil.
• - Serve fillets still hot.

Note

Tips

• - In the photo you can see a sample of whole brill, ready to be cleaned and filleted. Do not confuse brill with turbot even if this recipe can also be made with turbot.
• - You can get only 4 fillets from every brill. It serves only 3 people because the discard is great.
• - If you aren't able to fillet your fish, you can buy ready-to-cook fillets but remember that it's important to learn this technique. In fact if you learn the art of filleting fish, you can make a better use of fish without any discard. With head, fishbone and other discards you can prepare a good fumet for risotto or other Mediterranean dishes.
• - You can make the same recipe with other flat fish such as soles or rays.
• - If you have no fresh chives, you can use dried chives too (1 to 2 tablespoons according to your own taste). In this case add it to chopped vegetables with olive oil and Tabasco sauce.
• - I generally use green bell pepper to have chromatic colors. But if you prefer fleshy red or yellow bell peppers use them without any problem.
• - Finally, here's my trick to use less oil. You may have noticed that among ingredients only 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil is provided. Olive oil is used to grease oven paper, season spicy tomato and then fish fillets once removed from the oven. I always keep on hand olive oil in a spray bottle. By vaporizing olive oil on any surface, you can distribute better it and you are able to use very little amount. Do this when you have to grease baking paper and season freshly cooked fillets in this recipe ;))

Menu planning

• - Breaded brill fillets on spicy tomato is a tasty recipe for your family menu in late summer and early autumn when you can still find tomatoes and bell peppers.
  In winter, the best season to taste brill, I have the habit to accompany my fish fillets with fennel and orange salad.
• - You can also prepare this brill recipe for your children with a variant. Cook tomatoes in a non-stick pan without seasoning. Transfer them in a dish and toss with olive oil, salt and basil. Place fish fillets on cooked tomatoes. Children will have the illusion of eating like Mom and Dad!
  Whenever possible I prefer to add olive oil without cooking it to preserve its nutritional properties. For a healthier cooking ;))

Useful links for this recipe

• - Interested in fennel-and-orange salad?

Healthy eating

• - As you have noticed, this brill recipe has less than 300 calories and less than 10 grams of fat.
  Vegetables and olive oil are not cooked and olive oil is not used in large quantities.
  From hand to hand I'm telling you all my secrets for a healthier eating.
• - Deep frying, if done well and in small quantities, does not hurt. By now most of nutritionists says it clearly. As long as oil is the right one (olive oil or peanut oil), used only once and you take all the necessary precautions. In any case, I still make it rarely, mostly when I plan get-togethers with relatives or friends. I prefer, for my every day cooking, baking in the oven that replaces deep frying properly. In many cases this results in tasty dishes as you have just read.
• - Fiber per serving: 2,4 grams.

Loretta

What's the right wine ?

Choose a good dry white wine or rosé wine to pair to your breaded brill fillets accompanied by spicy tomato salad. My husband and I prefer Vermentino from Liguria or Vermentino from Sardinia. We like rosé wines from Salento (Apulia) too.