When I’m cooking for a group, fish is probably the last thing I’ll usually make. Unlike chili or a stew or a sheet pan pizza, fish is fussy: overcook it, and you’ve ruined it. Plus fish is expensive: if you’re cooking for six people and you buy six salmon filets, you’re out at least fifty bucks. And if you want to sear those filets to get crispy skin (and who doesn’t like crispy skin?) you’re going to stink up your whole apartment.
There’s Another Way
Turns out, the oven is your friend when it comes to cooking fish for a crowd. I first learned this lesson when I made slow-roasted salmon with cucumber yogurt and preserved lemons back in 2015. Now, though, I have a new favorite fish recipe that uses the oven and is perfect for summer.
Meet roasted halibut with burst cherry tomatoes and salsa verde. This is my riff on a NYT recipe by Lidey Heuck (Gift Link) and the concept is basically that you roast tomatoes in a baking dish with shallots and garlic in a 400 degree oven until they’ve burst, about fifteen minutes.
Get Ahead of It
You can do that step ahead, which is what makes it so great for dinner parties. Then, when you’re ready to cook the fish, just lay the filets — I used halibut — on top, rub with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for 10 to 12 minutes until the fish is cooked through (shoot for an internal temp of 130 to 135).
From that step alone you have a sauce and a cooked protein and the only addition I like to make is to spoon a quick salsa verde on top so that it’s not just a pale, white piece of flesh on a sea of red.
Here’s my methodology: get some basil and some parsley, add some roasted almonds, and a few cloves of sliced garlic and chop chop chop until you have what looks like confetti. Stir that together with lemon zest, lemon juice, a splash of white wine vinegar, and lots of olive oil and there you have it: the perfect topping for an already-flavorful dinner.
So the next time you’re fretting about how to serve fish at a dinner party, do what I do: let the oven do the work. You’ll never default to chili again.
Roasted Halibut with Burst Cherry Tomatoes and Salsa Verde
Ingredients
Method
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees. In a 9 X 13 baking dish, mix together the tomatoes, shallots, garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar, honey, and a generous sprinkling of kosher salt and pepper. Roast for 15 minutes or until the tomatoes have started to burst. You can do this step ahead and add the fish when you’re ready for dinner.
- Make space for the four halibut filets, lay them in, and drizzle with a little olive oil; plus a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until a thermomter inserted into the fish reads 130 to 135. Remove from the oven.
- To serve, spoon some tomatoes on to each plate, top with the fish, and spoon on the salsa verde. Serve right away.
- To make the salsa verde: On a cutting board, lay the parsley, the basil, the almonds, and the garlic and chop with your sharpest knife over and over again until you have what looks like confetti. Nobody wants a big piece of garlic in a bite, so make sure it’s all cut down really small.
- Place the mixture in a bowl, add the zest of the lemon, plus the juice, the vinegar, then slowly stir in the olive oil. If you want a more emulsified sauce, you could also add a tablespoon of Dijon here. Season with salt and pepper and taste to adjust for acidity and salt.
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