"It's almost impossible to end up with dry, overcooked fish when cooking it whole," says chef Steve Corry. "The bones protect against extreme heat, plus they add flavor and moisture." Here, Corry pan-roasts whole branzino, Mediterranean sea bass, that's stuffed simply with lemon and rosemary. He makes the easy compound butter, which melts on the fish to become a sauce, with wild Tunisian mountain capers, although any caper will work. More Quick Fish Recipes

Roasted Branzino with Caper Butter

unsalted butter, softened

capers

lemon juice

parsley

Salt

lemon, sliced into 8 rounds

rosemary

olive oil

Preheat the oven to 425&deg;. In a medium bowl, mix the butter with the capers, lemon juice and parsley and season with salt. Keep at room temperature.


Season the branzino cavities with salt and stuff 2 lemon rounds and 1 rosemary sprig in each. Season the fish with salt.


In a large, nonstick, ovenproof skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil until shimmering. Add 2 of the branzino and cook over high heat until the skin is browned and crisp, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer the fish to a large rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 stuffed branzino. Roast the fish in the oven for about 10 minutes, until just cooked through.


Serve whole or filleted, passing the caper butter at the table.


I made this recipe as suggested. It was moist and spectacular.

I followed the recipe and tried to brown the fish and then turn it to its other side after 3 minutes and the skin stuck to the pan and the some of the flesh came off. I don't think the delicate fish should be turned over at all nor transferred to the baking pan. Next time, I will avoid these two steps and just transfer the oven-safe skillet to the oven. I will comment when the fish is done after the 10 minute cooking time.

I sautéed in a pan and then into the oven to finish in same pan. I also added a little panko breadcrumbs to caper butter and put some inside the fish before cooking so it really melted into the fish and then on top when finished. This was so good my hubby has been talking about it for days. Now if I could only learn to debone it so it looked as good as it tasted :-)

I didn't use the Branzino recipe, but I did make the caper butter and it was fantastic! A great accompaniment to the fish! My husband loved it.

Is it possible to cool this on a cast iron and transfer it straight to the oven in the cast iron skillet?

While the flavors in the compound butter are good, this recipe has a problem. The cooking time is way too long. Cut the time in the oven to five minutes and the fish is perfect, otherwise, it's a soft mess. Also, it's unclear why it calls for an ovenproof skillet when the fish is transferred to a baking dish for the oven. Somewhere there's a disconnect.

I used thyme instead of rosemary since it's growing in my garden, otherwise followed it pretty much exactly.

So good!! My daughter was scraping the bones.

roasted branzino with caper butter

Total: 40 minutes

Servings: 8

Author : Steve Corry

Ingredients

Instructions

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