Credit crunch inspired lemon and white fish spaghetti (Fish)

Member Name: Lauramai26

Product:	Fish
Date:	30/10/08 (52 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Yummy, healthy if you cook it with the right things!

Disadvantages: Well, I just wanted to make some more!

Well, I had this last night because I had some left over white wine and white fish and so made this up based around those things. I think the credit crunch has turned me into quite a creative cook - I wonder if there are others like me having similar situations out there...Anyway, in my opinion it was YUMMY, so thought I would share.

Also, as well as being fairly cheap, this is pretty darned healthy, especially if you were to make it with wholewheat spaghetti. One more thing on the health-front before getting stuck in, I am an absolute sucker for frying in butter as it gives a far better taste, in my opinion, and also the heat with butter is much lower, so you do not end up with burnt garlic and chillies, which so often happens to me when I fry with oil! HOWEVER, I do think you could make this pretty successfully with low fat oil, or even those low-fat sprays - although I find that with the latter you have to stand there and spray it about 20 times or else everything sticks to the pan, somewhat defeating the point...or is that just me?

So, onwards:

Serves: 1 (you can obviously make it for more by doubling/tripling etc the amounts).

Cooking time: 30mins

75g Spaghetti
1 Small fillet of cooked white fish, flaked
10-15 Cherry tomatoes, halved
½ Large red chili
3 Garlic cloves
1 Lemon
Parsley
Approx ½ glass white wine
Butter to fry with (or oil, or spray...)
Salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to gas mark 4. Cook the spaghetti according to packet instructions. Place tomato-halves cut-side-up in a metal tray and season well with salt and pepper; pop in the oven and bake whilst the pasta is cooking.

I happened to have pre-cooked fish, but if you have bought a fresh piece, what I think would be really great here would be to bake this with the tomatoes - put the fish and tomatoes on a large piece of silver foil along with some slices of lemon, season well and scrunch the foil together over the top to seal this parcel, so that it looks a bit like a pasty. You would need to preheat the oven slightly higher I think, about GM5-6 but the cooking time should remain the same. When it is finished cooking later, flake the fish immediately.

Heat the generic frying lubricant (i.e. butter) in a frying pan on a low heat. Finely chop the chili and garlic and pop in pan, fry for a minute or two. Next, grate the lemon zest and add most of it to the pan, moving everything round so it doesn't burn/stick. Roughly chop some parsley - you can be fairly generous with this as it will wilt in the pan, so maybe 5-6 big sprigs. Add this to the pan, keeping everything moving. Half the lemon and squeeze both halves into the pan - if this spits you will need to turn the heat down a little. Add the wine - you may not even need the whole half glass, the sauce should ideally be half wine, half lemon juice, and there should not be too much of it, just enough to coat the pasta.

By now the spaghetti should be cooked, and also the tomatoes. Drain spaghetti and set aside. Tip the tomatoes and all their juices into the frying pan, and stir. Tip in the flaked fish as well now, and cook everything together, heating the fish through if it is cold, and season well with salt and pepper. Pour in the spaghetti and toss the whole lot together.

Serve, pouring over any sauce that stays in the pan. Enjoy.

Summary: Hope you enjoy this one.