Sole à la Provençale

Sole à la Provençale (sole with Provençal tomato sauce) teaches one clean principle: poach gently, then reduce boldly, but never with the fish still in the pan. The sole should stay pearly and supple while its fumet, a concentrated fish essence, olive oil, and crushed garlic condense into the sauce around it. Remove the fish the moment it is done. That is the one true thing to know before you touch the pan.

The book's kitchen assumed a fumet never off the fire, a saucier holding Provençale sauce and duxelles ready, enough hands to stuff the garnishes, and a salamander or fierce upper oven waiting at service. At home, make one compact tomato sauce and one pan of duxelles, use that duxelles in both the tomatoes and mushroom caps, and let the upper rack of a hot oven replace the salamander. The brigade's parallel labor is scaffolding and can go. The gentle poach, the reduced cooking liquor, and the separately baked garnish are the dish, so they stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.

The finished platter is generous rather than fussy: two whole soles beneath a glossy red sauce, ringed with tomatoes and mushrooms whose dark filling tastes deeply of butter and shallot. Have the sauce and garnishes ready before the sole goes into the oven; once the fish is poached, the reduction must be quick and the serving immediate.