Ingredients
1 – 1.2 kg (depending on size of baking pan) ripe tomatoes, diced, except for ½ sliced
1kg Fish From Greece Meagre
100ml olive oil
5-6 cloves of garlic finely chopped or crushed
Salt, freshly ground pepper
*optional: 6-8 baby potatoes & 8 cherry tomatoes
To serve:
chopped parsley to taste
Method
Preparation: 20 minutes. Cooking time: 50 minutes. Easy recipe.
The old, traditional recipe does not use potatoes. Adjust times for “baking 2” depending on the weight of the fish.
Preheat oven to 200 C.
Prepare ingredients:
Cut tomatoes into 1cm cubes. Keep aside half or a whole medium one, to cut in slices and place on fish later. Place diced tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper in the baking pan or dish you will be using. Mix ingredients.
Note you will season with salt normally- but not less, as tomatoes tend to sweeten when cooked. This way you can adjust the seasoning of the sauce later. If you are using baby potatoes, add them to the tomatoes. In case they are larger, cut in half in order to cook in the same time as the rest of the ingredients.
Baking 1: Place baking pan in preheated oven and cook for 30 minutes. Remove from oven. Taste sauce and adjust seasoning, if needed.
Prepare Meagre (while tomatoes are baking): Season fish generously with coarse salt, all over. Add pepper and place (carefully) on hot tomato sauce. Place reserved tomato slices on fish. If you forgot to keep slices aside, simply drizzle a little of the sauce on the fish. Add cherry tomatoes, if using.
Baking 2: Place baking pan back in the oven and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on the weight and thickness of the fish. The Meagre in the photographs was cooked for 22 minutes. Remove from oven.
Serving: Rest for 5 minutes to allow dish to cool. Present Meagre ‘Plaki’, without onions, to dinner table in the same baking dish or place fish with sauce in a serving platter, adding the chopped parsley.
Serve in deep plates placing sauce first, followed by a piece of the clean fish meat on top. If you’ve used the baby potatoes and cherry tomatoes add a few pieces of each.
