Pike in tomato sauce

Pike is lean, and from still water it also carries a muddy taste. The first flaw shows immediately over dry heat: the fillet turns fibrous and dry. Tomato sauce removes both flaws at once — the acid in the tomatoes takes away the muddy aftertaste, and simmering in a liquid sauce keeps it from drying out further.

Here, order matters more than the ingredient list. The pieces are first rolled in flour and fried to a crust, and only then go into the finished sauce. The flour crust binds the surface of the piece, so after twenty minutes of simmering the pike doesn't fall apart into fibers. Put raw fish straight into the sauce, and you get fish stew instead — edible, but a different dish.

The sauce is made in parallel, while the fish fries. First the onion until golden, then carrot with garlic, and last the tomatoes with sweet pepper: the fresh vegetables give flavor, while a spoonful of tomato paste gives the color and thickness that tomatoes alone won't provide.

This same pike also works cold: marinated in onion and carrot as a make-ahead starter, or simmered whole into a clear soup finished with an egg-white raft when you want broth instead of a sauced fillet.

Notes

• Flour, not breadcrumbs. A thin layer of flour gives a crust and also thickens the sauce once the fish starts simmering; breadcrumbs in the sauce go soggy and make it cloudy.
• Cut the pieces in half crosswise. A thick chunk of pike in the pan will burn on the outside before the center is done, while halves cook through evenly.
• Add curry by the pinch. It's here for color and a warm note, not for an Indian flavor: a whole teaspoon would overpower both the tomato and the fish.
• Pike's small bones don't go away. The sauce doesn't soften them — this isn't pressure-canned fish; the safest part is the tail section: below the anal fin there are no small bones left.
• Simmer covered on the lowest heat. Boiling breaks up the crust you fried the fish for in the first place.
• Add the parsley on top, not into the sauce. In simmering sauce it gives off all its aroma in a minute and after that just cooks.

Questions and answers

Do you need to soak pike before cooking?

Not for this dish. The acid in the tomatoes and tomato paste removes the muddy aftertaste, so you can skip soaking it separately in milk.

Why does the pike fall apart in the sauce?

Two reasons: the fish went into the sauce raw, without a crust, or it was simmered on high heat. The crust holds the piece together, and a gentle simmer keeps it from breaking into fibers.

How long do you simmer pike in the sauce?

Twenty minutes covered on the lowest heat. There's no point holding it longer: the fish is already cooked once it comes out of the pan, and in the sauce it simply stops drying out and takes on flavor.

What can replace tomato paste?

Tomatoes alone, but the sauce comes out thinner and paler — then simmer it longer and uncovered, so the extra water evaporates.