Making sauce is kind of like making edible art and those of us who take the process seriously have our own little sweet spot of a flavor pocket. This perfect marriage of fish and the deep sweetness of tomatoes is honestly your own roadmap to sweet recipe success and the simplicity of the sauce is enhanced by the multilevel flavors introduced by inclusion of olives and anchovies. Made according to my recipe source, this savory sauce is easy to make and pretty fool-proof, so take heart and try this recipe even though it includes many steps. Unfortunately I did not have the correct kind of olives so my sauce was slightly too briny so I ended up having to add some sugar, but when cooking sauce I think this kind of stuff always happens. Sometimes tomatoes from your garden are especially sweet and sometimes not so much (no matter how pretty they are) so tasting as you go always needs to happen.

While flavors in this dish were familiar there were some ingredients which threw me. Anchovy fillets, well, don’t get me started- I don’t usually cook with them and they filled me with apprehension. Complete disclosure: I thought I accidentally bought whole anchovies the whole way home from store and I was picturing the funny speech bubble photos I would make if they still had their heads saying winky winky things as I turned onto Main Street in Beacon. I was PROFOUNDLY relieved when I looked in my handbag and saw I had indeed purchased fillets. Cooking with them was slightly scary, given my fear of aromas seeping into my soft surfaces, but I have often thought it was something I would just have to get over if I want to enjoy a world filled with pantry staples, Caesar dressing and the occasional very savory Bloody Mary. Since I didn’t have white wine, I deglazed the pan with some balsamic vinegar during this step instead and while I think wine would have probably worked better, the vinegar worked well. Another departure from the recipe was I also did not add vinegar at the end because of my over brined olives and the vinegar I added earlier in lieu of wine, but I think this was wise.

Cod is not a fish I regularly cook (though I have cooked it for this blog), because I have found it remarkably hard to season well, so cooking it in a savory sauce which would automatically flavor it as it cooked seemed pretty simple. “SIGH” I thought to myself as this cooked away and relief flooded my body…”The aromas which are wafting through my tiny house are of soothing Italian tomatoes, not fish!”….The original recipe called for adding the couscous to the sauce before adding the fish which I did not do, and I should have. Yes, I’m a dummy when I’m hungry so I added it after and it was like frosting a cupcake around the sprinkles…Ya live, ya learn….still living, still learning! When I make again (and I will because the presentation is pretty impressive and on occasion I cook to impress) I will use black olives, add the couscous when I should have and completely submerge the fish the entire time. Again I am reminded why I should not cook super hungry because snafus happen when I am hungry… Truthfully I owe my decision to not completely submerge the fish until it had been in the pan for about 5 minutes to my appetite (and eating at 9:00 at night). This then added to the cooking time and meant the fillets cooked down more than they were supposed to.

Fish in the summer makes so much sense and yet the thunderstorms in my area have made grilling fish after a day of attempting normalcy pretty damn difficult. This recipe filled my need for my own taste of the sea and it was bathed in flavors which I have always associated with comfort - garlic, roasted tomatoes, sweet red peppers and savory aromatic onions. I subscribe to a number of recipe newsletters which pepper my inbox with messages extolling the virtues of dishes I have and have not made, and some, a brave few, I flag for future use. The problem with cooking fish in your house in summer is the aroma of fish seems to permeate everything from your bathrobe hanging in the closet to your toothbrush sitting in the bathroom to (in my house) my pillows I lovingly handmade so I had some whimsy to brighten up the Wayfair predictability people might have thought I would fill my house with after my fire. Nobody but nobody gets to see the wizard with fishy pillows(or so I say to myself) so I turn on the exhaust fan and cook fish sparingly and only when it seems wise.

Fondly I remember spring/summer lobster races, actual races where my uncles would pit unfortunate crustaceans against each other on my grandparents’ back deck on Long Island, competing for the title of the crustacean to first meet the stockpot. As a child it seemed normal to race lobsters in your Sunday mass finery; as a grownup it seems ridiculous yet I have done some serious ridiculous in my day, so who am I to judge their variety? Tender is my heart, so I have always cringed at the heartlessness of the boiling stockpot for our clawed companions, and yet, I’ve worked at catered clambakes and enjoy shrimp cocktail with relish…yes, I’m hypocritical when it comes to very few things, but my own consumption of crab cakes is on the list. At least, I tell myself, I’m a thoughtful and repentant hypocrite who tries to recycle and cares about micro plastics…sometimes my reusable straws help me sleep at night, but well, not always.

I think people who live in places which meet the wilderness whether it be people who live near the sea or people like me who grew up on a dirt road and essentially lives at the foot of a mountain, often have a reverence for the bounty of the world. Not always, but often I have seen grown men tenderly urge a fawn to cross the road to some place safe by waving and patiently wishing them to safety and I have been in fishing boats where the smallest fish are tossed back in to the water so they have time to reach the size they are meant to be, not because of the law but because of their commitment to honoring the natural world. It also takes special people who, having no every day connection to wild places, still retain their connection to the environment and the bounty of the earth, despite what they see from their bedroom windows. The sea, I have always thought, was filled with bounty but should be cared for with care and I try and enjoy seafood responsibly with an eye towards respecting what I serve by caring about how I cook it. My godfather and I have always had a special relationship but I remember the first time I felt like he was talking to me as a grownup and it was over a hot grill as he was teaching me how to cook salmon …Dutifully I sat and listened to his advice so I didn’t “commit a crime against nature” (his words) and turn it over too many times. His words, now as I think about it, were delivered in levity, but in truth we both believe in our own way not honoring everything we get from this beautiful green planet is some kind of special sin. So make this recipe, honor the ingredients and try and enjoy it with somebody who will appreciate both your efforts and the ocean’s generous abundance.