Nigel Slater’s recipe for baked red mullet, anchovy and capers

I took the fish to the table in the garden, still in its earthenware baking dish, two plump red mullets, their pink and silver skin shimmering in the sunlight. I had baked them with shallots thinly sliced, anchovies and knobbly tomatoes as big as a clenched fist, the fruit collapsing in the heat of the oven, its juice forming a pool around the fish. For once, we cared not a jot about the blazing sunshine, the scorching rays completely appropriate to the bright flavours on our plates. There was pink wine, too, the sort that only works on the hottest of days, when you have prepared chilled glasses and a deep ice bucket.

Some fish beg to be cooked whole, their skin rubbed with olive oil and seasoned with woody-stemmed herbs, such as rosemary, summer savory or thyme. Whole fish like their empty bellies stuffed with fennel stems or oregano, a single sliver of garlic, bay leaves or a few thin slices of lemon. Should you add anchovy, best to mash it to a paste, then mix it with the olive oil with which you baste the fish.

The salty, robust notes of anchovy are the secret ingredient in this recipe. Their pungent notes all but disappear when the little fillets are mashed to a paste, adding instead a magical depth without the overly fishy taste. Recognisable on a pizza or in a tomato salad, when they are dissolved into softening onions or crushed into the dressing for a salad of new potatoes, or chopped and used as an aromatic along with thyme or rosemary in a roast or baked dish such as this, their effect is, like that of a bay leaf, subtle and mysterious.

To follow the fish I made a basil ice. The texture was that of an ice-cream, but the flavours were sprightlier thanks to the use of yoghurt in place of cream. It is important, for the flavour to sing, to make sure the basil syrup is simmering only until the sugar has dissolved and is then cooled as quickly as possible. I pour the syrup into a bowl sitting in a larger bowl of ice cubes, stirring to cool the mixture. You can swap the basil for mint if you wish.

I repotted my most scented pelargoniums this week, with an eye to the flowers but just as importantly, the invaluable place their leaves take in the summer kitchen. With luck there will be scented geranium sugar for sponge cakes, some rose-perfumed leaves with which to make jelly and, if I have done everything correctly, some flowers for the table.

The thyme was given a pruning, too. Growing in pots on the terrace, it enjoys the sunniest spot in the garden. Once its tiny purple flowers have finished and the bees have done their work, the stems were picked – my hands smelled like Provence – and the plants are now left to rejuvenate. Those stems I don’t use will be dried, stored in a jar and used to season lamb cutlets all summer long.

The broad beans are still in great shape, small and sweet. If you grow your own, you can cook them whole, pod and all. Sauté a little chopped spring onion in olive oil, then put in the broad beans, bring to the boil then simmer for about half an hour till tender. Drain, trickle with olive oil and little lemon juice and serve warm, with bread and spoonfuls of ricotta.

I also like to boil them in salted water, drain them, pop the beans from their paper skins then give them a brief toss with snippets of sizzling bacon and its fat. A fat handful of chopped parsley and splash of red wine vinegar, a grinding of pepper and you’re done.

Baked red mullet, anchovy, capers

You could use almost any fish for this, but the seasonings of rosemary and anchovy capers are at their best with mullet, sea bass or hake. The notes are Mediterranean, reminiscent of supper eaten in the baking heat. I sometimes throw a few black olives into this recipe too, usually towards the end of cooking.

Serves 2. Ready in 45 minutes

red mullet 2, large, cleaned and gutted

shallots 4

olive oil 3 tbsp

red wine vinegar 3 tbsp

rosemary sprigs 6

anchovy fillets 6

capers 2 tbsp

Rinse the fish under cold running water, then pat dry with kitchen paper. Place them side by side, with a little room between them, in a roasting tin. Heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6.

Peel and finely slice the shallots and place them in a mixing bowl. Pour in the olive oil, a grinding of salt and pepper and the red wine vinegar. Finely chop the rosemary leaves, then stir them in.

Mash the anchovies to a paste using a pestle and mortar or finely chop them on a board, then mash with the flat side of the knife blade. Scoop them up and stir into the dressing.

Spoon the dressing over the fish, then bake for 20 minutes until the flesh of the fish will flake easily from the bones. Using a palette knife, lift the fish onto plates, stir the capers into the roasting juices in the tin, then spoon over the fish.

Jonathan Lovekin