Baked Monkfish with lemon, rosemary and bread crumbs is a light and easy-to-cook fish recipe, for everyday family dinners or to amaze your guests with a quick and easy dish. Monkfish is a delicate fish with white flesh. Very nutritious, without thorns, perfect even for children.
Monkfish fillets are often compared to lobster. The monkfish has a firm, sweet and boneless flesh like lobster. What is certain is that monkfish is not as expensive as lobster!
Cooking a fish usually seems quite difficult. In reality, if the fish is of good quality and already cleaned ready-to-cook, it’s really quick to do it! This recipe proves it: short preparation times, fast cooking and finally a really tasty dish to serve!
Baked Monkfish with lemon, rosemary and bread crumbs is made with a lemon breading for fish. So coat the monkfish with bread crumbs flavored with lemon, rosemary and garlic. The breading helps to keep the fish flesh soft and enhances the delicate flavor of the fish. The tasty and crunchy crust is just a plus!
Now let’s see how to bake monkfish with a lemon flavored breading.
See also:
- Sea bass baked in foil Ligurian Style
- Breaded fried anchovies Italian recipe
- Sea Bass Fillets with Zucchini and Potatoes
- Baccalà alla Livornese (Salt Cod and Potatoes in Tomato Sauce)
- Swordfish in Orange Juice
Baked Monkfish with Lemon, Rosemary and Breadcrumbs Recipe
- Prep Time: 20 Min
- Cook Time: 20 Min
- Yelds: 4
Ingredients
- 500 g (1,1 lb) monkfish fillet
- 1 lemon
- 80 g (1/2 cup) of stale bread but not very hard and dry
- 60 ml (6 tablespoons) extra virgin olive oil
- 1 peeled garlic clove
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- fine salt to taste
Directions
Step 1) – For this recipe, baked monkfish with lemon, rosemary and bread crumbs, first you have to make the bread crumbs. Use stale bread that is not too hard and dry. The breadcrumbs must be coarse to get a crunchy and crispy breading. For a more detailed recipe on how to make bread crumbs, see How to Make Homemade Italian Bread Crumbs
So cut the bread into pieces and place them in a food processor. Add the garlic clove and the rosemary leaves.
Step 2) – Then add the grated zest of a lemon. Be careful to grate only the yellow part because the white one could make the mixture a bit bitter. Finally add 30 ml of extra virgin olive oil and a little fine salt to taste.
Step 3) – Chop using short pulses so that it doesn’t turn up too fine. For this recipe we want a coarse consistency like the one in the picture. Now take a baking dish and put 2 or 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil on the bottom. Set aside for the moment.
Step 4) – Cut the monkfish fillet into slices and remove the central bone.
Step 5) – Place the monkfish slices in the baking dish. Cover them with a few tablespoons of lemon and rosemary flavored breadcrumbs.
Step 6) – Add a drizzle of oil and a little lemon juice.
Step 6) – Bake monkfish with lemon, rosemary and bread crumbs in a preheated oven at 180° C (350 F) for 15/20 minutes, until the crust is golden and crunchy.
Serve baked monkfish with lemon, rosemary and breadcrumbs as soon as ready with roasted potatoes as a side dish.
Storage
You can keep leftovers in the refrigerator, in an airtight container for up to one day. No freezing.
Baked Monkfish with Lemon, Rosemary and Breadcrumbs: some Variants
Monkfish meat is perfect for various types of cooking: baked, steamed, grilled or cooked in a frying pan.
A very popular classic monkfish recipe is pasta with monkfish and cherry tomatoes, where you cook the fish with tomatoes in a frying pan.
Baked breaded fish is a traditional way to cook, in particular in central Italy.
In this recipe we have shown you how to flavor the breading with lemon, roseamry and garlic, but you can flavor the bread as you prefer. according to your tastes.
For example, you can use fresh basil or marjoram depending on the season. Or you can chop olives, capers and hot chilli pepper together with the bread.
Even the bread crumbs can be replaced with corn flour or even with chopped almonds or pistachios to make this recipe always new, crunchy and delicious!
The Monkfish: Curiosities
Monkfish is a very widespread fish and present almost everywhere but above all they populate the deep waters of the North Atlantic Ocean and the western Mediterranean.
Monkfish is a very ugly fish with a huge mouth. It is voracious and eat almost anything that swims nearby.
Despite their ugly appearance, their meat is delicious and nutritious, high in protein. it has no bones, just a large central spine that you can easily remove. For these reasons it is a fish areally good for children.
There is flavorful meat located in the cheeks, but it is hardly used in recipes. The meat of the monkfish is firm, lean and white in color and the part used is the fillets of the tail.
Monkfish in Italian is called “Coda di Rospo” or “Rana Pescatrice” (literal translation: toad tail, angler frog). Probably the words “frog” and “toad” are associated with this sea fish because it lives and hunts in the seabed. Therefore you can find it always in the sand like amphibians and like them it has a very large mouth.
The English name Monkfish probably refers to the rather enlarged shape of the head and mouth reminiscent of a monk’s hood and the dark brown color of the skin.
However delicious and succulent, the monkfish is certainly not beautiful and attractive. We can say that appearances are often deceiving!
