Anne Burrell’s Branzino with Basil Pesto & Eggplant Caponata | Worst Cooks in America | Food Network

Chef Anne Burrell serves her pan-cooked branzino atop a mix of colorful vegetables, herbaceous pesto and pickled raisins.
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Seared Branzino with Basil Pesto and Eggplant Caponata
RECIPE COURTESY OF ANNE BURRELL
Level: Easy
Total: 1 hr
Active: 1 hr
Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

Caponata:
2 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 large eggplant, peeled, alternating 1-inch strips of skin left on, cut into 1-inch dice
Extra-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt
1 large red onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
Pinch crushed red pepper
6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3 ribs celery, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 fennel bulb, cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice, fronds reserved for garnish
1 red bell pepper, cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 yellow bell pepper, cored and cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup capers
1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, cut into slivers
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
1/2 bunch mint, cut into a chiffonade

Pesto:
1 cup packed basil leaves
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons mascarpone cheese
Kosher salt

Branzino:
6 branzino fillets, skin on
Kosher salt
Extra-virgin olive oil

Directions

For the caponata: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a large bowl, toss the zucchini and eggplant generously with olive oil and salt to taste. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast until the vegetables are soft and mushy, 15 to 20 minutes. Reserve.

Coat a wide deep pot with olive oil. Add the onion and crushed red pepper and season with salt to taste. Cook over medium-high heat until the onions are soft and aromatic, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic, celery and fennel and cook for another 5 to 6 minutes. Stir in the red and yellow bell peppers and cook for another 5 to 6 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine the raisins, vinegar and sugar in a small bowl, set aside to lightly pickle while the vegetables cook.

Add the roasted eggplant and zucchini, tomato paste and water to the fennel mixture. Cook until the water has evaporated. Stir in the capers, olives, pine nuts, mint and raisin mixture. Cook for another 5 to 6 minutes.

For the pesto: Add the basil, pine nuts, Parmesan, garlic and olive oil into a blender. Blend for a few seconds until it comes together but still has a little texture. Add more olive oil little by little if it’s too dry. Add the mascarpone and salt to taste and blend to combine.

For the fish: Pat the fish dry. Season both sides well with salt. Heat a large nonstick pan with a nice coating of olive oil over medium-high heat. Coat the bottom of a smaller, separate pan with some olive oil. Place the branzino into the heated pan, skin-side down, and press the smaller pan over the top of the flesh firmly (but you don’t want to squash the fish).

Cook the fish until the skin is crispy and the fish is about two-thirds of the way cooked, about 3 minutes. Flip the fish, then lower the heat and gently cook for 1 to 2 more minutes, or until the fish is cooked through. Remove from the pan and allow to rest, skin-side up.

To serve, spread some of the pesto onto the bottom of the plate. Follow with a scoop of the caponata and finally the fish skin-side up. Garnish with fennel fronds.

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Anne Burrell’s Branzino with Basil Pesto & Eggplant Caponata | Worst Cooks in America | Food Network

We are talking fish this fish is a brand Zeno very popular fish especially in the Italian slm Mediterranean Kitchen so the first thing with the skin on our eggplant we’re going to take a peeler and we’re going to just peel strips of the skin away then we are

Going to dice these into like 1 in cubes pretty big the zucchini are kind of small so you can do a whole zucchini right into the bowl with the eggplant plenty of olive oil and salt all right pine nuts so we put those on a sheet tray and into the oven as

Well our nuts will be done in 5 minutes all right anybody know what this is no no what fennel this is fennel we’re going to take the tops off but we want to save these because we’re going to use these for garnish on our fish afterward half an onion4 of an inch

Dice two celery see right we were like oh wow I forgot about those okay so I’m looking at my nuts and I’m like nope not enough I’m GNA give these two more minutes so I’m going to set a timer for two more minutes half each red and yellow

Pepper see like you forget those nuts don’t you all right see what we’re looking for all right fennel there’s a big stock in the middle of there so we cut this guy in half and see where this triangle of the stock of the fennel is see so we’re just

Going to cut on the other side of that okay and then slices then we’re just going to go downtown like this onions celery Peppers fennel let’s get them into our pan and let’s get them starting to cook and and salt did you guys taste it we’re also going to give a pinch of

Crushed red pepper here garlic all right golden raisins sugar red wine vinegar pickling our raisins a little bit so we have like a sweet and sour situation happening let’s just give this a stir M nice things happening you know look at it looks pretty there’s a lot of

Colors going on I’m just going to check my eggplant and zucchini why just cuz this has a little ways to go so we are going to use this knife see where these fins are this is going to tell you where we’re going to cut so we’re going

To start right away and we’re going to commit to cutting to where we can’t cut anymore I’m touching the bones okay now on the back side right above all of these Dorsal fins we’re just going to make a little line long smooth Strokes so we go all the way down long smooth

Strokes to where the tail is and then we make a cut just sort of like that we did here so guess what there’s our filet there’s the road map that we’re doing okay and my knife is is touching the spine of the fish I keep my

My hand on there and I make sure my knife is going to be able to come out the other side all right and yes we’re cutting right through little Fishbones keep your hand flat on it and give it a gentle pressure this will help you all right and then it’s just commit to

It and then we open it up and there we go and there’s some bones under there so get underneath the bones and then just commit to cutting the belly flap right off the last thing for this there’s some pin bones in there and you can’t see

Them back up here one more time so feel right there feel everybody see you feel that see so we have these things that are called bone pullers so when you find them and there’s only a few so grab them all right and just don’t yank it out

Because the bone will break so it’s a steady smooth pressure okay and so there’s a few of those and don’t dig in to the flush of the fish with your fingers see my hands are always flat if I’m going like this I’m going to leave fingerprints now

We’re going to store our fish when put it on your tray that it came from skin side up because we want to cook that skin till it gets nice and crispy like crispy fish skin delicious I start to feel these guys we would like them to be soft and a little

Bit Brown so we’re going to let these go but I’m just rearranging them so I’m going to take a look at my veg going on here things are nice and sweaty things look soft it’s really nice and aromatic and we’re like M smells good so I I think it’s time for Garlic 7 or8 uh mint leaves chiffonade remember this now let’s talk pesto we have our basil Leaves in our blender about 3/4 of the pine nuts that you toasted you’ve already have them toasted so just pick them up off your tray and put them in the blender with your basil grated parm two garlic cloves so just toss them in there okay a pinch of

Salt and start off with 1/4 cup of olive Oil so let’s go another 1/4 cup but it’s better to go in smaller amounts with the oil and do not add the oil while the machine is running just push it all back down give another little squeeze of oil oh yeah two tablespoons of mascaron cheese then we’re

Done all right so we’re feeling these guys are nice and soft all right and they’re going to go right into my pan with all this Stuff it’s getting sort of nice and stewy let’s add in our vinegar and raisins and pine nuts like one squeeze two squeeze two nice big squeezes I have um about a tablespoon of capers in there too so konata is like one of those kind of things that it’s good today it’s

Better tomorrow when we SE our stuff right Pat it dry so we get this a Sprinkle of salt see watch you see that here come on up quick quick [Laughter] quick then you take this and just give it an e even pressure all right a little even pressure we’re

Not like squashing it we’re just oop don’t let it slip Slide Away there we go so and if you don’t oil this side of the pan you’ll pick this up and your fish will be stuck to it so remember we need to Salt this side cuz we only

Salted the skin side right so very light little salt all right goes it down so now while this is happening how about I just sliver a few olives touch it all right hold it gently just turn it right over all right and we can pull those right off they’re

Done stir the pine nuts and the mint into the caponata stir it in finished so the first thing that we’re going to do drop it notice where I’m dropping this okay so then the back of the spoon just make a big shmear okay drop stuff right on

There like two spoonfuls like one and a half okay right on top of that Nestle the fish filet in fennel frons right on there all right any Rando fennel fronds that fall on your plate we’re done all right that’s it guys