While Sole Meunière is not the prettiest dish on earth, it’s my all time favorite. If it’s on the menu (which it usually is not), I’m ordering it.

In my old days of traveling to New York City, I would seek out little French cafes that never failed to serve liver and onions and Sole Meunière . These dishes were a special comfort food for me, especially the fish. It almost always came with green beans (haricot vert, a little longer and thinner than the American green bean) and even though I was consuming a ton of butter, I felt healthy, happy, and satisfied.

This is such an easy dish to make at home, and as I write to you, I wonder why I don’t make this all the time. I think I have a thing about making fish inside the house, because I don’t have a good exhaust fan, which I’m thinking of putting in during our kitchen remodel. (By the way, stay tuned for our kitchen remodel saga, coming soon and a good reason to subscribe).

Julia Child described  her first experience with Sole Meunière as one of the most exciting dishes of her life. I completely understand such a blown up statement because I felt the very same way. The first thing you need to do is not be afraid of butter. Love it and clarify it.

How to Clarify Butter

Clarified butter is butter than has been heated and the foam removed, reducing it by about 25%. It is used when a dish calls for butter to be cooked over a high heat and the first thing to prepare when getting ready to make this dish.

Use Dover Sole or Try an Alternative

If you can’t find nice filet of sole, you can use an alternative such as flounder or another favorite, rainbow trout. If you can find spotted trout, all the better; it reminds me of lobster. It’s not quite the same texture as Dover Sole, but it will still be wonderful.

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Sole Meunière Recipe

Sole Meuniere, classically French with lots of browned butter and lemon.

Course Entree

Cuisine French

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes minutes

Total Time 25 minutes minutes

Servings 2

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 sole fillets (4 ounces each)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted clarified butter
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon minced flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon capers rinsed (optional)

Clarified Butter

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter

Instructions

• Combine flour, salt, and pepper. Dredge each fish fillet in the flour mixture until well coated.
• Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Brown each filet about 3 minutes on each side, depending on thickness.
• Transfer the fish to a platter and tent with foil. Add the remaining butter to pan and turn up the heat to medium-high.
• Brown butter until it turns golden and add lemon juice. Pour the butter over the fish and serve immediately. Sprinkle with parsley.

Clarified Butter

• Heat butter over very low heat until all the foam rises to top. Skim off foam, strain through mesh strainer or cheesecloth. You will probably end up with about 4 tablespoons.

The post Sole Meunière Recipe and How to Clarify Butter appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

I chose this dish for the “Cooking Italy” schedule, because it’s not a typical way most people cook fish and it is a low calorie, healthy meal. Not all Southern Italian food has to be heavy or fattening.

There is no way to make filet of sole look delicious, but take heart, it can taste delicious and a bit sultry. Fish with tomato, spice and capers is very Sicilian, and that means it shouts a little. And there are only two ways to eat this. Over pasta or with crusty bread. Sole tends to fall apart. Be okay with that. It’s a tender, lovely fish, and this is a great way to enjoy it.

Although this was made with canned Italian tomatoes, I’m thinking of summer coming and roasting my own tomatoes for a dish like this.

This was served over some spinach fettucini, which was cooked quite al dente and first tossed with olive oil, red pepper and parmigiano reggiano. The cheese took the place of garlic, which is what I would have used, had I not surprisingly run out.

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Cooking Italy: Baked Filet of Sole with Tomato, Oregano, Hot Pepper

Baked Filet of Sole, an easy, sultry Italian dish adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

Course Entree

Cuisine Italian

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2/3 cups onions sliced very thin
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic chopped very fine
• 1 cup canned imported Italian tomatoes
• Salt
• 2 tablespoons capers soaked and rinsed if packed in salt, drained if packed in vinegar
• 2 teaspoons fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried
• Black pepper or chopped hot red chili pepper
• 2 pounds gray sole fillets or other flatfish fillets

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 450.
• Put the onion and olive in saute pan on medium until onion soften to light gold. Add garlic. Add tomatoes, salt and cook for 20 minutes until oil floats free from tomatoes. Add capers, oregano and pepper. Stir for a minute. Take off heat.
• Wash fish fillets in cold water. Pat dry with paper towels. The recipe calls for folding the fillets in half, and this is probably because they easily fall apart. Smear baking dish with tomato sauce.
• Dip each fillet in sauce, fold. Pour remaining sauce. Put in uppermost rack of oven. Bake for five minutes or until done, but do not overcook.
• If sauce is too liquidy, pour into a saucepan and dilute on top of the stove to get back to
• original density.

The post Cooking Italy: Baked Filet of Sole with Tomato, Oregano, Hot Pepper appeared first on Spinach Tiger.