RECIPE: COD WITH FENNEL, CELERY AND MEDITERRANEAN PESTO

It’s guaranteed to bring a taste of Positano’s sea and mountains to wherever you are in the world.

Taggiasche olives, from Liguria, are small, dark brown, and intensely flavoursome; if you can’t source them, Greek Kalamata olives would also work.

You can make the pesto beforehand, as it is served cold. Keep aside a few parsley leaves for the final garnish. Then finely chop the parsley, lemon and tomato pulp, olives and capers, and combine in a bowl with enough olive oil to give a creamy but not too runny sauce.

Next, set the oven to 170°C/340°F.

Divide the vegetable stock equally between two medium saucepans, add a dash of olive oil to each, and bring to a rolling boil. Cut the fennel into eighths and toss it into one pan, then slice the celery diagonally into sections around half an inch thick and throw it into the other. (If this sounds like too much washing up, or if you’re short on stock, you can cook both together, though you’ll forfeit some purity of flavour). Boil both for ten minutes or until just tender, then remove with a slotted spoon.

As soon as the vegetables have started boiling, take a thick bottomed copper, cast-iron or steel frying pan, toss in a slug of olive oil, set on a medium heat, and when the oil is nice and hot, put in the cod fillets, skin side down. After a few minutes, when the skin is golden, transfer the pan to the hot oven (or place the fish in a baking tray if the pan’s not ovenproof) and bake for just 3 minutes.

Just before serving, combine the juices in the bottom of the frying or baking pan with a little of the still warm vegetable stock and reduce rapidly in a small saucepan. Place the fennel and celery on the serving plates, add the fish fillets, pour on a little of the fish and vegetable reduction (don’t overdo it – you need very little), garnish with the parsley leaves you kept aside, and add dabs of the Mediterranean pesto in a circle around the outside.