Pasta w/ Fish & Tomato Sauce

I made a lovely tomato sauce this evening to accompany my fish and shrimp dinner. I was happily surprised how simple it was to make yet how rich and luxurious it tasted. The recipe was by Pierre Franey, with several adaptations by myself. I am finally experimenting with wine in my cooking and you will be seeing much more of these recipes in the future.

What I want to highlight in this post is the tomato sauce. Remember how I say that anything tastes better with a good sauce? That being the case, this sauce raised an eyebrow for me. It was so decadent and better yet proved to be a pantry-friendly option for a weeknight meal. I think it would work really well on plain pasta. I am going to write up the entire seafood recipe that I made but I want you to keep in mind that just the sauce on pasta would have been amazing.

I began by adding oil to a pan then added onion, garlic, and pepper flakes and heated them through for a few minutes.

Then I added the chopped tomatoes and wine, bringing it all to a boil.

After it reached a boil, the cream was added and I let it simmer for a few minutes. Once it has reduced slightly, add a knob of butter. Stir in the butter until melted and remove the sauce from the pan to be added back later.

 

Then dust the fish filet with flour, add oil to the skillet, brown the fish on both sides cooking almost through, add the shrimp, and fry for an additional 3 minutes. After which...

Take your sauce and add it back to the fish. Finish cooking it at a low simmer. As you see, I scooped the shrimp on top of the filet so they did not overcook. 

Meanwhile, if you are having pasta, start boiling it while you make the sauce and fish. The meal components should be finished simultaneously so you can toss the pasta in the fish and sauce.

I added the pasta to the plate and put the fish on top for the sake of the picture. I was so surprised by the flavor. I was not prepared with fresh pasta on hand but I won't make that mistake again. This sauce is worthy of the fresh pasta effort.

Ingredients:

1 large fish filet of your choice

6 -12 shrimp

flour for dusting the fish

1/2 cup canned tomatoes, I prefer chunks

1/2 cup white wine

1/4 cup olive oil plus 1 tablespoon

1/2 cup finely chopped onions

1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic

1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 cup heavy cream

salt and pepper to taste

Pasta of choice - the recipe said 1/2 pound ziti

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley for scattering at the end

Method:

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a skillet and add the onion, garlic, and pepper flakes. Cook simmering for 3 minutes without browning. Add wine, tomatoes, tarragon, salt, and pepper.

Bring sauce to boil, add cream and stir.

Meanwhile, cook your pasta. Dust your fillet of fish with flour and shake of excess. Cook your fish in a skillet using the remaining oil until browned and almost done. Then add the shrimp and fry for 3 minutes, long enough to turn pink. Add the tomato sauce back into the skillet and let the fish finish cooking. Drain the pasta and add to the skillet with the sauce. Serve. It would be a good idea to cut the fish into cubes as well before frying so it is more easily turned into the pasta with the sauce. 

If you use it as a meatless sauce just toss the pasta into sauce once it has reduced and thickened.

I hope you enjoy!

~ Hugs from Mum