For Flavor-Packed Fish, Try Making It Ina Garten-Style

Seafood fans love a simple fish preparation, where little more than salt, pepper, and a bit of fat let the swimmer shine. But if fish fillets or steaks make frequent appearances in your dinner rotation, you may want to shake up those flavors now and then. There are, of course, all kinds of expert ways to cook different fish varieties. And one of the beloved Food Network treasure Ina Garten's recipes looks to a flavor more commonly associated with leafy greens and croutons for a bold twist on the expected.

In a clip (via Facebook) from her erstwhile show, "Barefoot Contessa," Garten gives four beautiful center cut fillets of swordfish the Caesar treatment. The secret's in the sauce, which Garten calls "basically flavored mayonnaise, like Caesar salad." That zhuzhed up emulsion coats the lightly seasoned swordfish like a minute marinade. Fat-packed mayo can keep a lean protein like swordfish moister than it would remain alone, and the Caesar ingredients bring your plate into a more cohesive focus.

In written instructions posted to Food Network's website, Ina Garten calls for striped bass steaks, instead of the show's swordfish. You might even try the approach with other mild white fish options like cod or halibut. When shopping for a new-to-you recipe, in fact, unless it's necessarily precise, it's never a bad idea to grab whatever reasonable swap is cheapest to give your first try a more comfortable margin for error.

If you already have a favorite homemade Caesar dressing recipe, go ahead and break it out. You might just want to skip the store-bought stuff in this case. The same thinner consistency that makes it easy to tip onto your salads can't really compete with the denser viscosity that Garten intends. Her particular blend calls for a whole cup of mayonnaise, plus the odds and ends that make a Caesar a Caesar, like garlic, parsley, anchovy paste, dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and lemon zest and juice. Once it's all pulsed in a food processor and slathered on the fish, it bakes for around 10 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and rests under foil for another 10 before it's ready to plate. Go ahead and serve with a side salad to really hammer the inspo home.