One of the most delicious meals I remember being excited to have was fried tilapia. We had it with ugali and what would universally be referred to as salsa (known as: ‘kachumbari’ back home) made with strong-flavored red onions, sweet juicy tomatoes, and finely chopped coriander tossed in salt. It was almost a weekly meal, so it surprises me that I grew out of fish, until now.

This oven-baked sea bream dish is one you should have in your sea bream fillet recipe repertoire at home and it also makes for a crowd-pleasing Christmas fish recipe. You will like that it takes roughly 10 -15 minutes of preparation time and the rest of the work is done in the oven without having to lift a finger. Eh hem, with the exception of checking on the fish 🙂 How long to cook sea bream in the oven? 35 minutes.

This oven-baked sea bream fillet recipe was shown to me by Nonno Enzo who I would like to assume is more than happy to spend more than a few minutes with me in the kitchen over Christmas. As we cook up a feast, sip wine in between chit-chat regarding this and that- mostly food. This makes me think of just the significant role food can play in bringing people from various walks of life closer together.

How to Make the Oven-Baked Sea Bream Fillet With Potatoes

How to cook sea bream in the oven is rather simple, start by:

Preparing the Potatoes

First things first, choose your potatoes wisely as they are not all made equal. For this recipe, I suggest you use floury potatoes.

The potatoes need to be sliced (about 1/4 inch thick) and boiled for 8 minutes or until you can pierce through without breaking them apart. Then drained and lined in a baking tray large enough to fit both fish laid flat side by side and sprinkle some salt. Toss some of the tomatoes, parsley, and peppercorns over the potatoes before laying the fish over it.

Baking the Sea Bream Fish

If buying the sea bream from a fishmonger, buy it whole and have them fillet it for you. If you’re unable to find this fish fresh from the market, frozen will do just fine. Leave it to thaw before baking.

The first thing I do is wrap the fish in between kitchen paper towels, then lay it over the ‘bed’ of potatoes (which have some of the tomatoes, parsley, and peppercorns). And top the fish with the leftover herbs, vegetables, spices, and salt. To finish I drizzle some garlic-infused olive oil and a good splash of white wine.

I let the fish cook for 30 minutes at 220°C/428°F. And, halfway through that time, I flip the fish so it’s now skin side up. I do this because I hate soggy bottoms 🙂 However, if you could care less then just cook it without interference for 30 minutes.

To have a nice brown color to the sea bream, I flip it back after 30 minutes (now the skin side is down), melt a knob of butter over the fish, then put it back in the oven for a further 5 minutes for browning.

The fish will finish cooking in the oven as it soaks up the white wine and broth from the fish, vegetables, and herbs.

If you liked this healthy sea bream recipe, please share and give it a thumbs up below. Did you perhaps use it to bake a whole sea bream perhaps? If for whatever reason it wasn’t as good as you hoped, let’s talk about it. Let’s stay in contact on Instagram, Pinterest, and Youtube, or subscribe below to be notified of new content.

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Print Recipe

Oven-baked sea bream and potatoes

(+20 rating, 4 votes)

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Dinner/Lunch – International

By Angela – Serves: 2

Prep Time: 10 minutes – Cooking Time: 45 – Total Time: 55 minutes

Sea bream fillet and potatoes baked with herbs and white wine. Makes a great weeknight addition to your family menu or when hosting a crowd and don't want to fuss

Ingredients

• 800g sea bream fillet
• 400g white floury potatoes
• 1 medium-sized tomato
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon of black peppercorns
• 3/4 cup of dry white wine
• 30ml Olive oil
• Unsalted butter

Instructions

1

Dice the tomatoes

2

Bring water in a pot to boil, in the meantime prepare the potatoes

3

Cut the potatoes to about 1/4-inch thick, toss into the hot water to boil for on high heat for 8 minutes, or until almost soft enough for you to piece through without difficulty. While that boils, prepare the infused oil.

4

Heat a saucepan on medium heat then add in the olive oil, toss in the cloves of garlic, and let infuse for about 2 minutes. (The oil should not reach the smoking point and the garlic should not brown). If the garlic starts to brown, take them out, reduce the heat and put 2 fresh garlic cloves until the 2 minutes are through.

5

Preheat the oven to 220°C/428°F

6

Pour 1/4 of the infused olive oil onto the baking dish

7

Drain the potatoes and lay them flat in the baking dish. If there are any leftovers with no space to lay them, you can put them against the sides of the dish

8

Evenly spread 1/2 of the diced tomatoes, black peppercorns, and parsley over the potatoes. Sprinkle some salt, not too much as you will also salt the fish

9

Lay the fish fillet on a kitchen paper towel and press to soak in excess water. Transfer them over the potatoes, lay them side by side, skin side down.

10

Top the fish with the leftover: tomatoes, peppercorns, parsley. Pour in the wine and finish by pouring the infused oil evenly over the fish.

11

Bake in the middle oven rack, If during the 30 minutes baking the fish looks a little dry, scoop some of the juices settled on the potatoes to drizzle over the fish.

12

After 30 minutes, melt a knob of butter over the fish then put it back in the oven for browning. Take it out after 5 minutes.

13

Once the fish is out of the oven, squeeze some fresh lemon on it and serve.