Branzino in a Salt Crust with Fennel Grapefruit Salad

I have always been very passionate about seafood recipes.

I’m from Salerno, Italy, on the gorgeous Amalfi Coast and seafood was a main staple of our diet. It is said that people from Salerno are “pesciaioli” (which could translate as “fish eaters”) and I am no exception. Growing up with a vegetarian mom and a meat-eating dad, the seafood market was one place where the ongoing “family feud” could find a truce. Growing up I was a bit of the nerdy and curious kind, so while walking through the tables and booths of the fish market I would watch fishmongers clean the catch and ask them how they would cook it. I was first exposed to the following cooking technique by a fishmonger from whom we were buying orate, a Mediterranean species that is somewhat difficult to find on this side of the Atlantic. Orate can be called the chunky cousin of branzino, which, I am happy to say, has become more and more available in the Tri-State area. The flavors are very similar but the branzino meat is a little flakier. The fishmonger suggested that we try to cook the whole fish in salt crust. I remember going home and thinking that the idea was adventurous enough, so lo and behold, my teenage self created a deliciously moist and unbelievably flavorful fish for lunch that Friday.

Years passed and I had almost forgotten about the recipe and the technique. One day I was talking with a coworker who mentioned she had enjoyed a branzino in salt crust at a restaurant and wanted to replicate it at home. (I work for an Italian bank and we are all foodies. Our combined knowledge offers priceless ideas for our kitchen adventures.) At the end of the workday I went to the fishmonger and asked for a branzino so I could test my recollection of the recipe. He was kind enough to remove the interior part of the fish as well as the scales and I rushed home to get my recipe going. I put the branzino in a baking sheet coated with kosher salt, covered it with more salt, baked it and eagerly removed it from the oven, hoping for the flavorful seafood dish of my teenage days. And here, dear readers, I have to tell you about the major failure of the dish. It was like eating … well, a bunch of salt! So I sat at the table thinking of what went wrong and how to fix it. I needed something to separate the skin from the salt, I thought, and then I remembered – I need scales! That was what went wrong!

Needless to say, all the following day at work I was thinking about my branzino redemption. After work I stopped by the fishmonger’s again, and this time asked him not to remove the scales, only the insides of the fish. This trick, along with one I learned from another fishmonger many years ago (see below) made for a delicious, flavorful, flaky and moist whole branzino! This traditional recipe (it originated in ancient Egypt and was used throughout the centuries as a delicacy in Mediterranean countries where salt was as valuable as currency) is also perfect because it is virtually fat-free and together with the fennel grapefruit salad, very refreshing and easy on the waistline.

I hope you enjoy it!

The branzino

1 whole branzino, interiors removed but scales intact

3 cups kosher salt

1 slice grapefruit

1 sprig rosemary

2 sage leaves

Preheat oven to 400F.  Coat baking sheet with one cup of salt so there is approximately ¼-inch of salt under the branzino. Wash the whole fish inside and out and place on salt in baking sheet. Insert aromatics, such as grapefruit, rosemary and sage (the recipe will also work with lemon or orange), in the open cavity of the branzino. Cover evenly with remaining salt so that the body of the fish is completely buried in salt but the head is not. Place branzino in the oven and cook for approximately 40 minutes (or until the eye turns white, the old fishmonger’s trick). Remove baking sheet from the oven. The salt should have solidified around the whole fish. Crack the crust open. The skin will have a paper-like consistency so it can easily be peeled from the branzino.

Finish cleaning up the fish (paying attention to the bones, of course!) and serve with the salad described below.

Grapefruit Fennel Carpaccio

1 fennel bulb, sliced thin with a mandoline

1 grapefruit, peeled and cut into segments

¼ cup pepitas, toasted

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup capers (thoroughly washed if they are kept in salt or vinegar)

½ red pepper, chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

Place fennel slices on a serving platter, layer grapefruit segments and sprinkle with pepitas, capers and red peppers. In the meantime, prepare an emulsion with the olive oil, salt and pepper and drizzle on top of the carpaccio. Let sit for 15-30 minutes, then serve.

The salad has a refreshing flavor that is ideal to cut through the richness of the branzino. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Ciao!

Serena Palumbo was born and raised in Southern Italy and discovered her passion for food at a very young age.  Experimenting in her mother’s kitchen and under the supervision of family and friends, she has learned the ropes of the Mediterranean diet. A former ballerina, she holds an Italian Juris Doctor from the University of Naples and a Masters of Law in corporate law and securities regulation from New York University.

Serena moved to New York in 2004 and has worked for several prominent law firms while keeping her cooking skills alive with recipes she shares with coworkers and friends.  In 2008 she created Cooking in Manhattan, a homemade show about homemade food, with her husband Kurt.  The webisodes became an instant YouTube sensation and Serena appeared on season six of The Next Food Network Star as the only finalist without culinary training.  With her creativity and lively personality, Serena became one of the most popular finalists of the show. 

Serena and Kurt still live in New York and Serena spends her time practicing law by day and cooking up a storm in her orange kitchen at night.