Besugo al Horno Cántabro

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Oval or rectangular baking dish, about 35 by 25cm
• •Sharp filleting or utility knife
• •Instant-read thermometer
• •Small frying pan
• •Mandoline or sharp chef's knife for 4mm potato slices

Instructions

1. 1

   Prepare the fish

   Heat a conventional oven to 200°C, or 180°C with a fan. Rinse the cleaned cavity only if needed, then dry the fish thoroughly inside and out. Make three shallow diagonal cuts across the upper side, stopping when the knife reaches the bone. Season the fish with 8g salt, including the cavity, tuck the lemon half-moons into the cuts, and put 5g parsley inside.

   Have the fishmonger scale and gut the besugo, but keep the head and backbone. They protect the flesh during baking and give the potatoes their proper savor.
2. 2

   Start the potato bed

   Spread the potatoes and onion in a 35 by 25cm baking dish. Add 60ml olive oil, the remaining 6g salt, and 100ml water, then turn everything until evenly coated. Arrange the potatoes in overlapping layers and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, turning them once, until a knife enters with only slight resistance. They need this head start. Put fish and raw potatoes into the oven together and one of them will be wrong.

3. 3

   Set fish over potatoes

   Take the dish from the oven and turn the potatoes through the juices. Lay the besugo over them, scored side upward. Pour the wine around the fish rather than over its skin, then drizzle the fish with 10ml olive oil. Return the dish to the oven.

4. 4

   Bake to the bone

   Begin checking after 18 minutes. Slip a narrow knife into the thick shoulder just behind the head until it touches the backbone. The fish is ready when the flesh is opaque, still moist, and parts cleanly from the bone. An instant-read thermometer in the same place should register 63°C. A 1.4kg besugo usually takes 20 to 25 minutes. Take it out as soon as it reaches that point; five extra minutes for a browner photograph buys you dry fish.

5. 5

   Make the garlic refrito

   During the final five minutes, warm the remaining 30ml olive oil and the sliced garlic in a small frying pan over low heat. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the garlic is pale gold rather than brown. Draw the pan off the heat, wait 20 seconds, and stir in the pimentón for 10 seconds. Add the 25ml lemon juice carefully, then stir in the remaining 10g parsley. Keeping the pimentón away from direct heat preserves its sweetness; scorch it and the whole dressing turns bitter.

6. 6

   Dress and serve

   Spoon the warm garlic refrito over the fish as it leaves the oven, letting the red-gold oil run into the potatoes. Rest for five minutes. Cut along the backbone, lift away the upper fillet, remove the head and spine, then serve the lower fillet with the soft potatoes, onion, and pan juices. Siempre sale, si lo sigues. It turns out if you follow it.

Chef Tips

• •True besugo is Pagellus bogaraveo, a pinkish fish with a dark mark above the pectoral fin. The name is used loosely outside Spain, so ask for the species. Buy a fish with clear raised eyes, red gills, firm flesh, and a clean smell of the sea.
• •If besugo is unavailable, use a whole dorada of similar weight. It has milder, slightly richer flesh and usually cooks faster. A whole red snapper also roasts well, but its firmer, sweeter flesh changes the character of the dish more plainly.
• •Use a waxy potato and cut every slice 4mm thick. Pésalo, no lo adivines, and measure the slices too. Thick, uneven pieces remain hard beneath the fish while thin ones collapse into the wine.
• •Choose a dry, unoaked white wine. A coastal white from Cantabria belongs naturally beside the dish; txakoli from the neighboring Basque Country also has the brisk acidity to cut through the garlic oil.
• •Serve the besugo as soon as it has rested. Refrigerate leftovers within two hours and eat them within one day, cold or warmed very gently under cover. A second hard baking will dry them.

Advance Preparation

• •Ask the fishmonger to scale, gut, and remove the gills and fins up to 12 hours ahead. Keep the fish covered on a tray in the coldest part of the refrigerator, then dry it thoroughly before seasoning.
• •The potato-and-onion bed can be baked up to four hours ahead. Cool it promptly, cover and refrigerate, then return it to the 200°C oven for 10 minutes before setting the fish on top.
• •Slice the garlic, chop the parsley, and measure the pimentón before guests arrive. Cook the refrito only during the final minutes so the garlic stays crisp and the pimentón sweet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 425g)