Pan Seared Red Snapper, Virgin Sauce, Riccia Al Dente

Ingredients for Pan Seared Red Snapper

  • 2  red snapper fillets
  • 1 tbsp Malaysian palm oil
  • 50 g flour
  • salt & pepper

Ingredients For Virgin Sauce

  • 100 g cherry tomatoes, finely chopped
  • 2 tsp small capers
  • ½ lemon (juiced)
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 100 ml Malaysian red palm oil
  • hand-torn basil leaves and chopped chives, to garnish

Pasta

  • 300 g riccia
  • sea salt

Directions

  1. Rinse red snapper fillets under cold water and pat dry.
  2. Gently season each fillet with salt and pepper.
  3. One piece at a time, coat the fish fillet with flour on both side
  4. Heat Malaysian palm oil in a large non-stick pan over medium heat, until shimmers. Add red snapper fillets, Floured-side-down. Swirl and rotate the red snapper fish fillets around the pan until deep golden brown for about 5 minutes. Do it on both side. Once both side are golden brown transfer to oven.
  5. Cook for about 5 minutes and remove the fish from the oven. Check by inserting instant-read thermometer into the deepest part of the fillets and registers at 140°F. (a knife or a cake tester inserted into the fish should show no resistance).
  6. Prepare the virgin sauce:
  7. Combine tomatoes and shallot in a pan with the capers, lemon juice and Malaysian red palm oil, and season to taste.
  8. In a large pot, boil water. [4 litre for ea. 500g of pasta).
  9. Add sea salt to taste.
  10. Add pasta to the water and stir occasionally (Use the cooking time indicated on the pasta’s package as a guideline, but taste it to determine if it is “al dente”)
  11. Do not add oil to the water. It reduces the pasta sauce absorption. (A good quality pasta will not stick to one another)
  12. Drain immediately, but do not rinse.
  13. Plate pan seared red snapper, top with virgin sauce.
  14. Serve it with a side of riccia pasta.