Fish in Tomato Sauce

This is a simplified version of my grandmother’s Fish in Tomato Sauce. My grandmother is an expert cook who can whip up something absolutely delicious in minutes without ever looking at a recipe, and this fish is one of my favorites among her dishes. It does not taste exactly the way it does when she makes it, which I would never hope for, but it comes somewhat close. The biggest modification of her recipe is that I added bell peppers to the vegetable marinade, while she only uses carrots and onions. Another difference is that she, like most grandmothers, measures out ingredients by eye and by taste, adding a pinch of this and a handful of that until the dish tastes right. I find this remarkable because her dishes always taste very consistent. But of course, “a pinch and a handful” is not something that will work in a written recipe, and so I had to estimate the amounts of ingredients. I think it worked out well enough, but you be the judge.

A great way to serve this is with a side dish that absorbs the sauce well, such as mashed potatoes or rice. We had it with just a salad and used bread to soak up the sauce.

Ingredients

1 lb fish filets (Any fish with firm white flesh will do, such as tilapia or cod. Here, I used tilapia)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 large carrot

1 onion

1 red bell pepper

1 14 oz can of tomato sauce

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper

Directions

• Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper
• Pour the flour on a plate and dredge the fish through flour. Set aside.
• Coarsely grate the carrot using either a manual grater or a food processor.
• Finely chop the onion and bell pepper.
• Fry the fish in a skillet until slightly golden-brown, about 3 minutes per side. Remove from skillet.
• Saute the onion in the same skillet until it becomes translucent and starts to brown, about 10 minutes.
• Add carrot, bell pepper, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, and sugar. Saute uncovered until carrots and pepper are tender, about 10 minutes.
• Add fish to skillet and mix well with the sauce.
• Cover and cook on low heat for 10 more minutes.

Prepared ingredients ready to go

Fish in the skillet: almost done

Final result