Roasted Ling with tomatoes and olives

Silvia Colloca's ling fillets baked over baby tomatoes, Monini black olives and caperberries with parsley stalks, white wine and good olive oil. Italian one-pan cooking, the fish staying tender while the tomatoes blister and the brine concentrates. Bread for soaking.

Ling (Genypterus blacodes, the Australian ling) is the firm-fleshed white fish that suits the gentle baking treatment without falling apart or drying out. The flesh is mild enough to take on the briny, savoury flavours of the tomato and olive base without being overwhelmed; substitute with blue eye, snapper or any firm white fish if ling is unavailable.

The parsley stalks (rather than the leaves alone) are the small Italian household trick that defines proper one-pan fish cookery. Stalks contain most of the parsley's flavour and almost none of its bitterness when cooked; tied with kitchen string into small bundles and laid under the fish, they release their fragrance into the cooking juices and the fish picks up the perfume from below.

Monini black olives are the proper Italian-grown variety (rather than the mass-produced California black olives that go through chemical processing). The natural fermentation and salt-cure of the Italian olives gives them a deeper, more complex savoury note. Caperberries (the larger, pickled fruit of the caper plant, distinct from the smaller buds called capers) add brine and a slight pop of texture. White wine, olive oil, salt; bake at 180 for fifteen to twenty minutes depending on fillet thickness. Bread for soaking the pan juices.