Traybake MarbellaJulie Van Rosendaal/The Globe and Mail
Motivation can be limited when cooking for oneself, particularly when so many recipes are scaled to feed four to six. It can be tempting to default to cereal or toast, but sheet pans and baking trays make it easy to pull together a more substantial meal for just one or two, now that there are so many pan sizes available. With the same (minimal) amount of effort, you can feed yourself or a party of 10, and if you have a toaster oven or similarly shaped air fryer (which is just a mini-convection-oven), there’s no need to turn on your full-sized oven when cooking for one or two.
In 1982, Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso brought Chicken Marbella to the masses in The Silver Palate Cookbook, making roasted chicken with olives, prunes and capers an iconic midweek and dinner-party dish of the eighties. The combination of flavours also pairs well with whitefish, which cooks quickly on a sheet along with a few pantry ingredients. Your meal can be ready faster than it takes to order delivery. Think of it as a modern-day TV dinner that’s far from frozen.
Traybake Fish Marbella-ish
If you like, boil some new potatoes to add to the sheet pan as well, tossing them with the lemony, garlicky oil first. To make it closer to the original Marbella, add a handful of pitted prunes to the mix too.
- Whole lemons (about one per person)
- Whitefish fillet, such as cod, lake whitefish, haddock or halibut (one or two per person)
- Canola, olive or other vegetable oil, for cooking
- 1 small garlic clove, finely crushed (one is fine no matter how many you’re cooking for)
- Chopped fresh or dried oregano (a big pinch per person)
- Pitted green olives (lemon-stuffed olives are delicious)
- Capers (lots)
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Chopped flat-leaf parsley (optional)
Preheat the oven to 425 F.
Thinly slice your lemon(s), leaving about a quarter at one end. Spread the slices on a parchment-lined sheet and lie your fish fillet(s) overtop. Squeeze the juice from the reserved end into a small bowl (alternatively, to make it more Marbella-ish, use a splash of red-wine vinegar) and add about twice as much canola, olive or other vegetable oil and the garlic and oregano. Drizzle over the fish and scatter with olives and capers, and season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 10 minutes for thin fillets such as cod, plus an extra five or so if you have a thicker piece of fish such as halibut, until it turns opaque, the edge begins to flake with a fork, and you might see some fat globules rise to the surface.
Serves as many as you like.
