Snapper aqua pazza

(fish in crazy water)

This dish really defines my preferred cooking style - super-easy but full of flavour.

Originally, the Italians cooked the fish in seawater, which is where the name crazy water or ‘aqua pazza’ comes from. Today we use sparkling mineral water and salt.

You could also use bream, mullet, garfish, whiting, prawns, mussels or vongole.

Ingredients:
4 frying-pan or plate-sized snappers
12 cloves garlic
4 tablespoons chilli confit
20 cherry tomatoes
20 ligurian olives (or marinated small olives)
1.5 litres (52 fl oz/6 cups)
sparkling mineral water
3 tablespoons butter
24 basil leaves

Make three cuts down to the bone on both sides of each fish and then cook each fish separately, using a quarter of the ingredients for each one. (You might want to keep the cooked fish in a warm oven as you go.)

Heat a touch of olive oil in a frying pan, add the fish and cook for 3-4 minutes until golden on one side. Turn the fish over and add some garlic, chilli, tomatoes and olives and season with sea salt and cracked pepper. After 30 seconds add the mineral water (just enough to cover the fish), butter and basil and cook for another couple of minutes until the fish is just cooked through.

Lift out onto a serving plate and pour the sauce over the top.

Serves 4

Recipe and cooking images from Fish by Pete Evans, published by Murdoch Books, photography by Alan Benson