Miles Collins

Fish and Cheese Combo….

Monkfish is one of my favourite foods for pairing with ingredients you might not readily associate it with. I’ve matched it to oxtails, ham hocks, peas, carrots, clams, beef shin, cepe mushrooms, pork belly, chorizo sausage, the list goes on.

Now I’ve decided to go a bit more alfresco, it’s hot in England at the moment, believe it or not so light dishes are the order of the day. Salad Caprese or tomato, mozzarella and basil salad as it is better known is a classic salad but it needs good ingredients.

Ripe, flavoursome plum tomatoes are vital as is a good buffallo mozarella, not that crap that they put on cheap ‘authentic Italian American’ pizzas in the UK, they’re as Italian American as I am. Fresh basil and a nice extra virgin olive oil finish it all off as the basic salad, but I like to add a few extras.

Roasted peppers serve as the base for which to put the tomatoes and cheese on top, anchovies, olives and capers give it a salty punch and a dressing of anchovy, chilli, peppers and red wine vinegar take it to new heights.

Make your salad up first,the tomatoes want to be served at room temperature, add the mozzarella last to avoid its milk from ‘bleeding’ over your nicely arranged salad. Add some or all of my suggested ingredients and season with cracked pepper, don’t bother with salt if anchovies and olives are in the mix.

Slice your monkfish into even sized pieces, season and coat them in fine breadcrumbs mixed with chopped Mediterranean herbs. Cook the fish ‘a la minute’ in oil and butter. Serve on top of the salad. I’ll post a recipe for the anchovy dressing soon.