Slow Roasted Sablefish with Romesco Sauce

Shopping for ingredients for this dish was involved but really fun-- went to my favorite farmers market (berkeley), to Market Hall's specialty shops in our neighborhood, including the wine shop to get a Rioja to splash in the sauce and drink the rest, ala Julia Child, and the fishmonger, who convinced me to get the Wild Alaskan Sablefish instead of the cod-- it had come in fresh that morning (according to him), and he said it was beautiful, and would be even more delish. (and expensive!)

I made the sauce in the afternoon- Amanda was right, there was something relaxing about preparing all the ingredients in their own way. I did have trouble scraping the flesh from the soaked pepper, as it all sort of just disintegrated, so I just cut the few tough parts off, and threw the rest in figuring the food processor would take care of it. Other then that, all the other preparations were straight forward, made even easier with my beloved Cuisinart. The flavor of the sauce was delicious and earthy, and adding those few tablespoons of the sherry vinegar made such a huge difference-- really brightening the flavor. I was surprised at how much sauce the recipe made-- ended up with loads of leftovers which I think I'm going to throw over some pasta later in the week, and serve with some scallops or shrimp.

Cooked up the fish later that night-- the cooking time was about 40 minutes, but completely uninvolved, so I could definitely do it on a weeknight. I wasn't sure about how much to salt the fish, as she said liberally, and I knew it was a mild fish, so I used quite a bit of salt, almost creating a light coating. I used a mixture of grey and kosher salt, and it came out perfectly seasoned, which was a relief, as I was nervous about that part.


I served the fish over some fresh arugula, as I thought the color and sharpness of the greens would go nicely with the gentle fish and earthy sauce. Also roasted up some wedges of potato, as I figured they'd be great to dunk in some of the leftover sauce. Overall, I thought the dish was great. The slow roasting of the fish, a first for me, left it so delicate yet cooked all the way through. And I liked the sauce a lot, so much flavor-- though I'm thinking with some of the leftover to try mixing in a few capers, as I think maybe they might add a nice tang to it.

Oh, and the wine, at $11 a bottle, was a fantastic value. Albiker 2004 Rioja.

Overall a lovely meal that I am definitely going to recreate next time I'm entertaining... with maybe some Spanish finger foods to start and a nice cheese course to end... makes me want to have a dinner party soon!