Cod and Olive Topping
with
Rich Vellante
A mouth-watering olive crust tops this light and savory cod dish. Learn how to cook cod with this easy olive tapenade.
Transcript: Cod and Olive Topping
My name's Rich Vellante, Executive Chef from Legal Sea Foods in Boston, MA for About.com Food, and today I'm going to show you how to make cod - and it's cod topped with an olive crust.Cod With Olive Tapenade Ingredients
Obviously you have these little fillets of cod, and we have all these very savory ingredients that are going to go on top of the cod.- 1 1/2 – 2 lbs. cod fillet
- 1/4 cup Kalamata olives
- 1/4 cup Spanish olives
- 2 tsp capers
- 1 1/2 minced anchovies
- 2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 cup diced tomato
- 2 tbsp minced fresh parsley (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
Mix the Olive Tapenade
So what we are going to do first is, with our Cuisineart, I have some Kalamata olives, and I have some Spanish Olives. I have capers and I have anchovies. So what I'm going to do fist is add the Kalamata olives to the food processor, add some green olives, I have here some tomatoes - and tomato will smooth that out - equal portions of olive and then twice as many tomatoes.I have here capers, they're from the caper bushes. And also I have some anchovies. And a little bit of minced garlic – I like garlic. Then I have here some balsamic vinegar. Just pour a little bit of balsamic vinegar in there. Pulse that a little bit then, I'm going to add some olive oil and pulse that again. Try and make that into a paste.
Cover the Cod With the Olive Tapenade
Now I have here a little bit of parsley - this will finish it off. So I have my paste now, and I have my fish. Now I don't think I will have to salt this, but I will add a little bit of olive oil to it. What I have here is this olive tapenade, this olive paste, and I'm putting that on top.Heat the Pan
I'm going to add a little bit of olive oil to a pan. I feel it's important to heat the pan before you put it in the oven - that's why some people get confused when they read a recipe and the recipe says 20 minutes in the oven. Well if you think about it, it's going to take a good 5 minutes just for the pan to heat up. So, I'm just trying to alleviate that and speed up the process by heating up the pan here.Cook the Cod
Now I'll just put this in the oven, and what I've done is, we've cooked this for about 20 minutes in a 375-degree oven. It could take longer, it could take less depending on how hot your oven is, but we are going to take it out.Serve the Cod With Olive Tapenade
You have to be careful with cod, as it is very delicate. And you could add the natural juices on there. And then just to finish it off we have some lemon and some parsley - anything you want just to give it some color. And there you go!Thanks for watching and to learn more visit us on the Web at food.about.com.