Recipe for Baked Tilapia with Tomatoes

This is loosely based on several dishes I have had that involve fish baked or seared and served with a chunky tomato sauce. It really came about the other day when a friend asked me what she should do with a sack full of tilapia. As it turns out this is really easy. 

I like easy. Like many people, I work a full eight hours with a commute of a little over an hour each way. So by the time I get home at 6:25pm I like something easy for dinner. That is to say; at least something easy that does not require a microwave oven. I haven’t had a microwave since March of 2006 and I have been quite happy about it. Not to say that I don’t use the micro at work to reheat my leftovers for lunch. And there have been times where I wanted popcorn and have had to devise a popcorn maker out of a  hairdryer a bench vice, two rolls of duct tape and a cast iron bathtub (don’t try this at home folks, besides it didn’t work.) eventually though I found out that a large stock pot with a tight fitting lid served just as well. 

After a few emails about technique and ingredients it became quite obvious to me that if I was letting a friend try something we were sort of making up as we went along. It would not be fair of me not to make it as well. A quick run to the supermarket and then I was ready to begin this journey of discovery. 

Now my friend told me the next day that though delicious it had taken forever to cook. Mine didn’t it was done in 35 minutes. However, this may have been because our techniques differed slightly.  Here is how I did it.

Ingredients: 

4 fillets of Tilapia

1 14.5oz of chopped tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano

1 Onion medium, chopped

1-4 clove of garlic, have I ever mentioned how much I love garlic and hate Twilight?

2-3 Tablespoons of red wine

½ teaspoon dried basil

A little salt and black pepper

1 Tablespoon of olive oil

Method:  

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Oil the inside of a baking dish (preferably a lidded one) with the olive oil.  Place the fillets in the baking dish.  Mix the tomatoes, onion, wine, garlic and basil in a bowl. Season lightly with salt and pepper to taste. Pour this mixture over the fillets in the baking dish. Cover with the lid or tightly cover with aluminum foil.  Place in the preheated oven and bake for 35-40 minutes till the fish flakes lightly with a fork. Now there will be quite a lot of liquid in the pan, you can reduce this in a saucepan and serve over the fish or just make sure you have lots of rice or mashed potatoes to absorb the entire yummy flavor. I served with steamed asparagus (which I over steamed because American Idol was on) and risi e bisi (Italian rice and peas, long grain rice cooked in vegetable or chicken stock, with peas tossed in for the last few minutes of cooking).