This is a recipe I like to do when I don’t want to think too much about how to cook a whole gilt-head sea bream (or a sea bass, a dentex or other similar fish) 🙂

The recipe is really easy and simple, so it’s perfect to cook a delicate fish: I don’t usually like too elaborated recipes for fish, I always like to keep it simple and to fully appreciate the real taste of the fish, I never want to cover it too much, just a good extra virgin olive oil and fresh herbs.

INGREDIENTS (2 people):

• 1 gilt-head sea bream of 600-700 g
• 3-4 potatoes
• 1 clove of garlic
• extra virgin olive oil
• a couple of lemon slices (not treated)
• half glass of dry white wine
• fresh rosemary, sage, thyme and dill 
• freshly ground black pepper
• salt

1. First of all clean well the fish, remove every blood trace inside and with a knife remove well all the scales. Wash it and dry well.
2. Cut the potatoes into thin slices of about 2-3 mm thick.
3. Take an oven pan, spread a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on the bottom surface and then place the slices of potato on each other. Add some sage leaves, a sprig of rosemary and a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and put in the oven (which you have previously pre-heated) at 200 °C, fan-assisted mode, for about 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile prepare the fish: put some salt (not too much) inside the belly and also on the skin. Place inside the belly the clove of garlic, the 2 slices of lemon, some fresh dill and the thyme, and a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. That’s all 🙂
5. After the potatoes have baked for the first 15 minutes, take the pan out from the oven and place the fish over the potatoes. Pour the white wine all over the fish, add some more dill and thyme on the fish, a little bit of ground black pepper and bake for 17-18 minutes at the same temperature: 200 °C, fan-assisted mode. No more, in this time the fish will be perfectly cooked but its meat will not get dry, being still well moist.
6. When the fish is ready remove the garlic, the lemon and the herbs from the belly and then cut carefully the two fillets and serve it with the potatoes (add some salt on them), pouring also some of the extra virgin olive oil and wine juice that remained in the pan. I had also a simple fresh salad, it fits perfectly next to this 🙂

PS: the time to bake the fish is referred to a fish of the suggested size: a smaller fish will cook a bit faster, while a larger size sea bream will cook in a bit longer time.