Diana Chistruga
Gather the ingredients.
Diana Chistruga
Preheat oven to 425°F. In a medium bowl, mix butter with capers, lemon juice, and parsley; season with salt to taste. Hold at room temperature.
Diana Chistruga
Season branzino cavities with salt to taste and stuff two lemon rounds and one rosemary sprig in each. Season outside of fish with salt to taste.
Diana Chistruga
In a large, nonstick skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil until shimmering. Add two branzino and cook over high heat until skin is browned and crisp, flipping once, about 3 minutes per side.
Diana Chistruga
Transfer fish to a large rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and two stuffed branzino. Roast fish in the oven for about 10 minutes, until just cooked through.
Diana Chistruga
Serve whole or filleted, passing caper butter at the table.
About this recipe
If you’ve never prepared a whole fish before, this roasted branzino recipe is a wonderful place to start. “It’s almost impossible to end up with dry, overcooked fish,” says chef Steve Corry. He first cooks the branzino in a skillet — getting the skin browned and nicely crispy — before finishing them in the oven, serving with an easy caper-parsley compound butter that melts on the warm fish to become a sauce.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is so special about branzino?
Branzino — the Italian name for European sea bass — is a favorite because of its sweet, mild flavor, firm but flaky flesh, and relatively few bones, which are easy to remove. It is also a great candidate for stuffing and cooking whole. “The bones protect against extreme heat, plus they add flavor and moisture,” Corry explains. In this recipe, the fish is roasted, but it’s also a good option for steaming or grilling.
Is all branzino farm-raised?
Branzino populations still exist in the wild, but catch limits have been instituted due to a history of overfishing (and some countries have eliminated commercial fishing entirely). Because of this, most of the branzino available in the U.S. is farmed. Much of it comes from offshore farms in the Mediterranean, but some branzino is raised in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), generally considered the most sustainable method of fish farming. RAS-raised and wild-caught branzino are less common in grocery stores but are available to purchase online.
Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen
If branzino is not available where you shop, striped bass (similar but native to the waters off of North America) is a great substitute. To save yourself some work, have your fishmonger scale and gut the fish for you at the counter.
Corry likes to make this compound butter using wild Tunisian mountain capers, which are typically packed in sea salt rather than pickled in brine — but any caper will work.
Suggested pairing
When prepared simply, mild branzino can be overwhelmed by big, New World white wines, but it pairs well with the crisp Italian white Vermentino.