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    Home » Recipes » American

    Updated: Apr 23, 2023 by Marc · 2 Comments

    Pan-Roasted Cod with Cherry Tomato Pan Sauce

    This delicious ten minute meal comes together from just a handful of ingredients, and yet the pan-roasted cod is tender, moist and flavorful with a fresh citrusy zing and loads of umami from the sweet and savory tomato basil sauce.
    Recipe Pin

    This pan-roasted cod is super easy and delicious! The trick is to make a flavorful pan sauce with cherry tomatoes, basil and white wine.

    Although I don't work a regular nine to five, there are still times that I get slammed with work. With two public speaking engagements and two TV appearances this week, I needed to keep my recipes quick and easy. During these ultra-busy times, I often turn to quick pastas, or some kind of protein with a simple sauce that can be made in the same pan.

    This week, that meal ended up being this pan-roasted cod with a cherry tomato and basil pan-sauce. It has an insanely good effort to taste ratio, and the vibrant colors means the dish requires almost no styling to make it look good (I literally slid the fillets out of the pan and dumped the sauce on top).

    The one point you need to be careful with is to dry the surface of the fish thoroughly and make sure the pan is hot. Both these steps help ensure that the fish does not stick to the pan. Using a non-stick pan will make your job a bit easier, but you'll lose out on the nice brown layer of fond on the bottom of the pan.

    Easy and delicious, this pan-roasted cod with a white wine and cherry tomato pan-sauce is the perfect weeknight meal.

    This brown fond is like a concentrated fish bouillon, and forms the base for our pan-sauce. I used a splash of white wine to wash the fond into the sauce, and fortified its umami with the juices from the sweet cherry tomatoes. A few basil leaves and a splash of lemon juice finish the sauce off, and just like that, you have an easy fish entre that wouldn't look out of place in a fine dining restaurant.

    Perhaps the best part of this dish is that the leftovers make for a fantastic pasta. Just break up the fillets into bite-size pieces, boil your favorite pasta in well salted water, and toss the drained pasta with the cod, and tomato basil sauce. A sprinkle of lemon zest and parsley on top transforms a delicious dinner into a luscious lunch!

    Cherry tomatoes not only adds visual appeal to this dish, they're relatively sweet all year round, which means you can make this quick fix any time of the year! If you can't get your hands on fresh cod, other white-meat fish such as bass or halibut will work, or you could even make this with chicken, pork or tofu.

    📖 Recipe

    Simple and flavorful this pan-roasted cod is served with an easy pan-sauce made from white wine, tomatoes and basil.

    Pan-Roasted Cod with Tomato Basil Sauce

    4.17 from 6 votes
    Print Pin Discuss
    Prep Time 3 minutes mins
    Cook Time 7 minutes mins
    Total Time 10 minutes mins
    Yield 4 servings

    Units

    Ingredients 

    • 500 grams cod fillets
    • Salt
    • Black pepper
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • 15 grams garlic 2 large cloves, minced
    • 300 grams cherry tomatoes
    • ½ cup dry white wine
    • 13 grams Basil hand-torn
    • 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
    • Flat-leaf parsley
    • Lemon zest

    Instructions

    • Cut the cod into pieces that will easily fit on top of your spatula (if the pieces are two big they will fall apart when you try to flip them). Dry the fillets using paper towels and then generously salt and pepper both sides of each fillet.
      Salt and pepper both sides of the cod generously.
    • Heat a frying pan over medium heat until hot and then add the olive oil and swirl to coat. Add the cod and fry one side until browned on one side. Flip the fillets over using a spatula and fry until the second side is browned and the fish is almost cooked through.
      Sear the cod in a very hot pan with olive oil to form a brown crust and keep the delicate fish from sticking to the pan.
    • Transfer the fish to a plate and add the garlic to the pan, frying until fragrant.
      To make the pan sauce for the seared cod, add a bit of garlic and saute it until fragrant.
    • Add the cherry tomatoes and wine and boil, deglazing the pan in the process.
      Deglaze the fond from the bottom of the pan using white wine and cherry tomatoes.
    • Return the cod to the pan and then add the basil. Reduce the sauce until it has thickened, flipping the cod over a few times to coat evenly.
      Add the pan-roasted cod back into the pan along with the basil.
    • Turn off the heat, drizzle the lemon juice over the pan-roasted cod and garnish with minced parsley and lemon zest.
      Coat the cod with the pan sauce and serve, garnished with parsley and lemon zest.
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    Nutrition

    Calories 209kcalCarbohydrates 5gProtein 23gFat 7gSaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 53mgSodium 78mgPotassium 725mgSugar 2gVitamin A 590IUVitamin C 21.5mgCalcium 43mgIron 1.2mg

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Sean says

      June 16, 2021 at 9:31 am

      Problem with the recipe is that the measurements go back and forth from metric to standard. Would be nice if it was one or the other so that converting the measurements would be easier.

      Reply
      • Marc Matsumoto says

        June 16, 2021 at 9:52 am

        Hi Sean, the thinking here is that most digital scales have the option to use grams which I prefer because even small quantities can be measured in whole numbers. For example if I'm adding 2 grams of a spice to something it's weird calling for .07 ounces of it. The volumetric measurements are in US cups, but they'll be much harder for US readers to convert since they aren't going to have metric cups laying around. By the way, most of our recipes have a function to convert between metric and imperial in the recipe card. This was an old one without the conversion function but I've added it in.

        Reply

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    Hi, I'm Marc Matsumoto, a retired chef living in Tokyo, and I founded No Recipes to empower home cooks of all levels by sharing essential techniques and my kitchen secrets.

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    Start Here →

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