People cook food in packages all over the world—the tamale counts as one, too—but leave it to the Italians to do it simply. In Rome, you would have this with bass or turbot, but really it can be made with any fillet you like. Cooking in packages requires a small leap of faith to determine that the food is done, because once you open the packages you want to serve them. This method has always worked well for me.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 4 servings
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Put a baking pan in the oven and preheat it to 400°F. Take 8 sheets of aluminum foil, each about 18 inches long, and place one piece on top of the other (you will make 4 packages). Rub the fish with some of the olive oil; it should be nice and moist. Season it with salt and pepper and put it on a piece of the foil. Sprinkle with garlic and parsley and fold the foil onto itself, crimping the edges as tightly as possible. Repeat the process. (You can refrigerate the packages until you’re ready to cook, no more than 6 hours later.)
Step 2
Put the packages in the baking dish and bake for about 15 minutes (or about 8 minutes from the time it starts sizzling). Let sit for a couple of minutes before carefully slitting open the packages. Then spoon out the fish and serve with the lemon.
Cod Baked in Foil with Vegetables
Step 3
Add any or all of the following to each of the packages: 1 seeded and diced plum tomato, a few black olives, some capers, some very thinly sliced potato or onion.
Cod Baked with Vegetables
Step 4
You don’t need to make packages to produce the same flavor: Use either the original recipe or the variation and place the fish and other ingredients in a covered baking dish (Corning Ware is ideal for this). Bake at 350°F to 400°F until the fish is cooked through (the fish is done when the point of a thin-bladed knife inserted into the thickest part meets little resistance), 10 to 15 minutes.
