Fish Baked in Foil

You can cook the fish in individual packages or toss it all together in a covered casserole. But the individual portions are lovely. And you can assemble the packages well in advance and refrigerate them, which makes this an excellent dish for entertaining. You can use parchment paper if you like, though it’s a little more difficult to seal

Four 6-ounce thick fish fillets or steaks

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley or basil leaves

Lemon wedges for serving

• Put a baking pan in the oven and heat it to 400 F. Take 4 sheets of aluminum foil (or parchment), each about 18 inches long, and put one piece on top of the other (you will make 4 packages). Rub a piece of fish with some of the olive oil, then season it with salt and pepper and center it on a piece of the foil. Sprinkle with garlic and parsley and fold the foil over the fish, crimping the edges as tightly as possible. (To be sure there’s no leakage, use double thickness to wrap fillets if you like.) Repeat the process. (You can refrigerate the pack ages until you’re ready to cook, no more than 6 hours later.)
• Put the packages in the baking pan and bake for about 15 minutes (or about 8 minutes from the time it starts sizzling). Let sit for a couple of minutes before carefully cutting open the package—remove the fish with a spatula, pour the juices over all, and serve with lemon wedges.

Fish Baked in Foil with Vegetables.
• Add any or all of the following to each package: 1 seeded and diced plum tomato; a few black olives; some capers; some very thinly sliced potato, lemon, fennel, or onion.

MAKES: 4 servings

TIME: 40 minutes