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Snook in Basque Red Pepper Sauce

Róbalo a la Vizcaína

Salsa vizcaína is the pride of Bilbao: onions cooked slowly for an hour with sweet dried choricero peppers until dark, smooth and sweet. It turns a firm white fish like snook into a Sunday dish.

  • Prep 20 min + 30 min soak
  • Cook 1 hr 20 min
  • Serves 4
  • Level Medium
Photo: Tamorlan · CC BY-SA 3.0
Served with: Spanish Baker’s Potatoes ↓En Español

Ingredients

Tap each item as you gather it.

For the vizcaína sauce

For the fish

Method

Step by step, the way it is done on the island.

  1. Soak the peppers. Cover the dried peppers with hot water and soak 30 minutes. Split them and scrape the soft flesh from the skins with a spoon; discard the skins and seeds.
  2. Cook the onions slowly. Warm the olive oil in a heavy pot and cook the onions and garlic over low heat, stirring now and then, for 45 minutes to 1 hour until very soft and golden brown.
  3. Finish the sauce. Add the pepper flesh, the bread and 1 cup of stock. Simmer 15 minutes, then blend until smooth and strain if you like. Thin with more stock to a pouring sauce and season with salt.
  4. Sear the fish. Salt the fish and dust the skin side with flour. Heat the oil in a wide clay or oven-safe pan and sear skin side down 3–4 minutes until golden.
  5. Simmer together. Pour the sauce around the fish, turn the pieces skin side up and simmer gently 6–8 minutes until the fish is just cooked through.
  6. Serve. Scatter with parsley and serve in the pan with patatas panaderas and bread.

On the side

The side dish that belongs with it, full recipe included.

Spain

Spanish Baker’s Potatoes

Patatas Panaderas

Thin-sliced potatoes, onion and pepper baked in olive oil and a splash of white wine. Spaniards often bake a whole fish right on top so it soaks up the juices.

  • Prep 15 min
  • Cook 50 min
  • Serves 4–6
  • Level Easy

You need

  • 2 lb (900 g) potatoes, peeled and sliced ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick
  • 1 onion, sliced thin
  • 1 green bell pepper, in strips
  • 3 garlic cloves, sliced
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • ½ cup dry white wine
  • ½ cup water or fish stock
  • 1½ tsp salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley

How to make it

  1. Layer. Heat the oven to 375 °F (190 °C). Toss the potatoes, onion, pepper and garlic with the olive oil, salt and pepper and spread in a baking dish.
  2. Add the liquid. Pour the wine and water over, tuck in the bay leaf and cover with foil.
  3. Bake. Bake 30 minutes covered, then uncover and bake 20 minutes more until tender and golden at the edges. If adding fish, lay it on top for this last part.
  4. Serve. Sprinkle with parsley and serve from the dish.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.5

More ways to cook Snook

Same fish, a different corner of the sea.

Cartagena, ColombiaCartagena Fried Snook
Minas Gerais, BrazilBrazilian Snook Baked on a Clay Tile
Maracas Bay, TrinidadMaracas Bay Bake and Snook