Cod loin under a lid of hand-made basil and pine nut pesto, baked over garlicky cannellini beans and burst cherry tomatoes.
Prep
20 mins
Cook
25 mins
Servings
4
Per serving
£3.50
Difficulty
easy
A traybake that makes its own sauce. The beans soften into the tomato juices underneath while the pesto crust on the fish stays green and fragrant because it only meets the heat for fifteen minutes.
Heat the oven to 200C fan. Toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan over a medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, shaking constantly, until patchy gold. Tip them straight out of the pan and let them cool.
Pine nuts go from pale to burnt in about twenty seconds. Never walk away, and never leave them in the hot pan once they are done.
Put two thirds of the toasted pine nuts, the basil, one garlic clove, the parmesan, half a teaspoon of the salt and the extra virgin olive oil into a food processor. Blitz to a coarse, loose paste, stopping before it turns into a smooth puree.
Thinly slice the remaining two garlic cloves. Toss the drained beans and cherry tomatoes in a roasting tin with the olive oil, sliced garlic, chilli flakes, the remaining salt and the pepper.
Roast the beans and tomatoes on their own for 10 minutes, until the tomatoes are just starting to split.
Pat the cod dry, sit the fillets on top of the beans and spoon a thick layer of pesto over each one, spreading it right to the edges.
Dry fish is essential. Any surface water thins the pesto and it slides off into the beans instead of setting as a crust.
Return the tin to the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until the cod flakes when pressed at its thickest point and the pesto has darkened slightly at the edges.
Squeeze the lemon juice over the beans, scatter the reserved pine nuts across the top and serve straight from the tin with the lemon wedges.