Ingredients
Units
Scale
FOR THE FENNEL & BEANS
- 3 bulbs of fennel with fronds, cleaned and sliced into thin wedges (about 1/2″ in width) – chopped fennel leaves reserved
- 3 cups cooked, large white beans (gigantes, butter beans, or even cannellini beans will work)
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- juice of 1 lemon
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- flaky salt & fresh ground pepper
FOR THE FISH
- 4 whole fish (we used lavraki/branzini – each fish weighs around 1 lb)
- sliced mixed citrus (we used blood oranges, meyer lemons & mandarins, sliced about 1/4″ thick)
- olive oil
- flaky salt
Instructions
- Start by cleaning your fish if you did not have them cleaned by your fishmonger (for 4 fish this will take about 20 minutes)
- Pre-heat your oven to 425F
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat, add 3 tbsp of olive oil to the pan along with the sliced fennel bulbs & cook the fennel for about 5 minutes before stirring and cooking for another five minutes (you want the fennel to slightly caramelize, so avoid stirring to much)
- Once fennel has softened & slightly caramelized, add in the white beans, white wine & lemon juice and cook for about 5 minutes more
- Pour the fennel and beans onto a large baking sheet
- Rub the skin of each fish with olive oil and then season each fish inside & out with flaky salt – lay each prepared fish atop the fennel and bean mixture on the baking sheet
- Stuff each fish with sliced citrus and lay additional slices of citrus atop the fennel and bean mixture
- Roast in the oven on the center rack for 20 minutes – remove from the oven and add chopped fresh fennel leaves
Notes
For this citrus fennel whole roasted fish we have used European sea bass, called lavraki in Greek or branzini in Italian. It is by far, our favorite variety of fish that is available in our region. Other varieties of whole fish may be used, but I recommend using fish that weigh no more than 2 lbs for this recipe – (you will need 1 lb of fish per person)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes