Crispy fillet of bass cooked with almonds and crunchy walnuts , black olives and raisins. Served with escarole
Imagine my surprise when yesterday, strolling in my vegetable garden I found a couple of vegetables that had survived all the winter snow and frost that we had had less then a month ago, roman cauliflowers a couple of broccoli heads and a large head of escarole salad. Unbelievable—-I was amazed—ok maybe the cauliflower and broccoli were protected by their large thick leaves, but the escarole salad, how did she manage to survive??? Full of enthusiasm I gave the news to Nick, who, after having heard my exciting story of the day, said-Yes, ok it is all very interesting, but I don`t like escarole salad anyway!
This poor salad after enduring the cold and the frost she shouldn`t be treated like that, I must find a way to enhance its flavor and combine it with a right ingredient, so my big ungrateful husband will appreciate it ….. So I decide the best solution would be to cook the escarole as my mother , my grandmother , my great grandmother used to do it , in short, if generations of Neapolitans have enjoyed this dish surely Nick will be impressed!
To be safe I then thought to combine the escarole with a crispy fillet of sea bass filled with a Mediterranean pesto.
Mamma mia, the dish was fantastic, Nick was super happy and I thought to myself: well done Simona, you only had to dig into your family tree to save the reputation of this brave escarole salad and she was able to make a glorious dignified exit in the end!
Ingredients for 2:
Mediterranean pesto: -1 spoon chopped and toasted almonds, 1 spoon of chopped walnuts, 5 pitted black olives, fresh parsley, 1 teaspoon of raisins, EVO oil-.
2 fillets of sea bass
1 escarole cut in half
1 fresh anchovy cut into small pieces
1 teaspoon capers
1 spoon pine nuts
1 clove of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil.
How it works: Cut the 2 fillets into 4 pieces. Blend together all ingredients for Mediterranean pesto. Spread 1sea bass fillet with half of the pesto and place other half of fillet on top (like a sandwich). Repeat for the second portion. Set aside. In a pan cook Evo oil with garlic, when golden add pine nuts, capers, anchovy. Cook for 1 minute over low heat. Add escarole and cook for 5 minutes more (moisture from escarole must evaporate).
Meanwhile in a second pan put a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil when hot cook the fillets of sea bass. 3/4 minutes both sides. When fillet skin is crispy, turn off the heat and serve with escarole.
p.s. The original recipe for Neapolitan Escarole also includes raisins and black olives. But I used these last two ingredients in the pesto, so I decided to not use again.
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