Salsa verde means green sauce and it is a great accompaniment for all types of seafood and just right with crispy sea bass fillets. It is a popular sauce in many European countries and there are numerous variations blending olive oil, parsley, capers and garlic some thick and chunky others blended smooth.
Preparation time will be about 5 minutes and cooking time will also be 5 minutes. The ingredients below are for two but you can easily scale for more people. If you make too much salsa it will keep in the fridge for a few days with plenty of oil on top.
Ingredients For Crispy Sea Bass With Salsa Verde
2 large sea bass fillets from Walter Purkis & Sons
25ml vegetable oil
For the salsa verde:
50g Fresh parsley
25g Fresh mint
25g Fresh basil
1 tblsp Capers
5 Anchovie fillets
2 Garlic cloves
150ml Olive oil
50ml Red wine vinegar
Salt and fresh lemon juice to taste
Cooking Method For Crispy Sea Bass With Salsa Verde
Older more traditional versions of the sauce will be chunkier being chopped by hand compared to a more contemporary take that uses a food processor or blender. Chopping by hand produces a darker finished sauce but will take longer.
First chop or processs the herbs, capers, anchovies, garlic then add the vinegar and olive oil last. Do not use it all if the sauce looks too thin. Taste and finish with salt pepper and lemon. You can adjust the volume of mint, basil anchovies or garlic to your own personal preferences.
To cook the fish heat a tbsp of oil in a frying pan and place the sea bass skin side down. Leave for three or four minutes on the first side allowing the skin to become crispy do resist the temptation to turn it over too soon.
Once the skin is crispy and golden flip the fillet over and cook on the flesh side for just 1 minute.
Served right away with some new potatoes and a large spoonful of the salsa verde.
Try this versatile sauce with many other fish species fried such as Monkfish, Hake or Sea Bream.
