Oven baked scorpionfish with pasta and tomato sauce. A dish where pasta is cooked in a fish tomato sauce full of flavor and umami.
Scorpionfish is a difficult fish, as it has many bones. But that’s probably why it’s so delicious. It is highly recommended to ask your fishmonger to remove its back bones.
Scorpionfish is ideal for fish soup as it releases a wonderful, full flavor when boiled. Since the weather isn’t ideal for making a fish soup – too hot here, I thought of taking advantage of its rich taste by making it baked in the oven. The full of umami fish tomato sauce created during baking was ideal for cooking some pasta in it.
If I had to make again this recipe I would change one thing. What is it? The pasta. I made a mistake and chose large fusilli that caused me a little trouble during cooking. This happened because there were little gaps among the fusilli and I had to stir them frequently in order to equally absorb the broth. While, if you choose another shape such as penne or ozro, you won’t have to stir them again and again.
Recipe notes
- Scorpionfish, as the name suggests, has a type of “sting” in the form of sharp spines. It is highly suggested to ask your fishmonger to clean it properly.
- Keep in mind that the scorpion’s head is relatively heavy. That is why for a dinner for two, I used three fish.
- If you use a larger fish instead of three smaller ones, you will need to increase the cooking time. A 300-350 g fish is ready in 20-25 minutes, while a large one (around 1 kg) will take 35-40 minutes.
Oven baked scorpionfish with pasta and tomato sauce
Ingredients
- 1 kg scorpionfish
- 500 gr pasta, penne or ozro
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- 400 ml tomato sauce
- 10-15 cherry tomatoes
- 2 cups hot water
- bunch of parsley, finely chopped
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200 °C and grease a baking tray with olive oil.
- Season the fish with salt and pepper and place them on the baking tray with their back facing up. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan, over medium heat, sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil for 2-3 minutes, until tender.
- Add the tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, salt, freshly ground black pepper and two cups of hot water. Boil for 5 minutes.
- Add the chopped parsley and stir. Then add our pasta to the pot. Mix very well.
- Pour the content of the pot over the fish. The fish should be almost covered.
- Cover the pan with foil and put in the oven, on the middle. Bake for 15 minutes with foil.
- Remove the foil and check if extra water is needed. If so, add a little boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and in case the pasta has not boiled, put them back in the oven without the fish for another 5 minutes.
- Debone the fish and serve with freshly ground black pepper and chopped fresh basil.
Oven baked scorpionfish with pasta and tomato sauce. The fish creates a rich and full of umami tomato sauce in which pasta is cooked. You just have to pay extra attention to the bones of the fish.
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