Sea bass with fennel, orange and lemon

The Mediterranean sea bass, loup de mer, is nowadays mostly farmed. Wild seabass from Atlantic waters is in France called bar. It takes about 5 years for a wild sea bass to reach the minimum legal length of 42 cm. It then weighs about 900 g and in our supermarket in Nice costs about 33 euros kilo.

For the following simple recipe, I chose a wild line-caught sea bass, bar de ligne. Make sure that the fish is properly descaled and cleaned.

2 servings

1 wild line-caught sea bass, bar de ligne, about 900g
1 fennel
1 organic orange
1 organic lemon
100 ml white wine
2 tbsp olive oil
A pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 190° C.

Rinse out the belly cavity of the sea bass and dry with kitchen paper. Rub a pinch of salt in the cavity and fill with thin slices of ½ lemon.

Slice the fennel thinly and place in the bottom of an oven-proof dish which is large enough to hold the fish. Finely grate the zest of the orange and add to the fennel. Add the juice of the orange and ½ lemon. Place the fish on top of the fennel and pour the white wine over it. Sprinkle the olive oil on top of the fish.

Bake for 40- 45 minutes until the fish is done. Take a peek inside the fish or make a deep cut to see if it is opaque. Serve with red quinoa or green lentils and a green side salad.