CookEat Recipe
Tench in Tomato Sauce with Chard
Headless whole tench bodies gently cooked in a strained tomato and fish-head sauce, with chard finished in the same juices.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 2 food-grade tench, about 900 g total whole weight, cleaned by the fishmonger with heads retained for sauce; 40 g onion; 1 garlic clove; 1 tablespoon chopped parsley; 25 g celery; 25 g carrot; 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided; 300 g ripe tomatoes; About 200 ml water, plus a little more as needed; 400 g chard; Salt and black pepper.
Step 2
Have the fishmonger scale and gut the tench, remove the gills, fins and tails, separate the heads and cut the cleaned heads into small pieces for sauce. Keep the headless bodies whole and all fish chilled until cooking. Tench has many bones; check carefully when serving.
Step 3
Chop the tomatoes and simmer in a small covered saucepan for 15–20 minutes until soft. Pass through a sieve or food mill to remove skins and seeds. Separately, mince the onion, garlic, parsley, celery and carrot. Brown these gently in 2 tablespoons oil, add the prepared head pieces and season with salt and pepper. Add the plain tomato sauce and about 200 ml water, then simmer for 20–25 minutes until the head meat is thoroughly cooked. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean bowl; discard all head pieces and bones.
Step 4
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a broad pan and add the headless whole tench bodies as it begins to sizzle. Season lightly and cook gently, adding the strained sauce a little at a time, for about 15–20 minutes or until the thickest flesh is opaque, tender and at least 70°C. Turn carefully and add small amounts of water if needed.
Step 5
While the fish cooks, wash and chop the chard. Boil in water for about 5–8 minutes until tender and drain well. Finish it for a few minutes in some of the fish cooking sauce and serve beside the tench. Remove bones carefully as you portion the fish.
Step 6
Spinach may replace the chard: boil 400 g for 1–3 minutes, drain and finish in the same sauce. Alternatively use about 250 g shelled peas, simmered in a little water until tender and then finished in the sauce. The fish may also be served without greens. For tomato paste instead of fresh tomatoes, dilute 2 tablespoons paste in about 250 ml water and use in the head sauce, adding further water only as needed.
Step 7
For the salt-cod variation, replace both tench and their heads with 600 g ready-desalted salt cod in large pieces. Make the same browned vegetable and tomato sauce without heads, simmer for 15–20 minutes and strain. Cook the cod gently in the remaining oil and sauce until at least 70°C, about 10–15 minutes according to thickness. Serve with the chard prepared and finished as above. Use ready-desalted salt cod kept at 4°C or colder. If starting with dried salted cod, complete the supplier’s cold-water desalting instructions in the refrigerator beforehand; that variable soaking time is additional to the stated recipe time.
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