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By Root 1008 0

mixture and building up the main ingredients in a baked pastry case rather than on toast, you can make an appetizing tart: it will need to be cooked in the oven.

Serves 2

1 slice swordfish, about 200 g (7 oz), sliced thinly on the diagonal

375 g (12 oz) firm tomato, skinned, sliced

salt, pepper, cayenne

2 medium onions, sliced

3 tablespoons single or whipping cream

2 egg yolks

2 anchovy fillets, drained, chopped

1 tablespoon each chopped parsley and basil

2 teaspoons small capers

2 large slivers of a melting cheese – mozzarella, fontina, single Gloucester, Gouda, Lancashire, etc. or 2 tablespoons each grated Gruyère and Parmesan

2 large slices bread

olive oil

Season the fingers of swordfish and the tomato with salt, pepper and cayenne. Simmer the onion in the least possible salted water until just tender, and drain. Beat together the cream, egg yolks, anchovy fillets, herbs, capers and – if used – the grated cheeses.

Preheat the grill and toast the bread. Put it on to a serving dish and keep warm.

Heat a large sauté pan over a medium heat and brush thinly with olive oil. Cook the swordfish briefly, seconds a side, until it turns opaque. Remove and quickly put in the tomato in a single layer. Cook fast on both sides until the slices blur and are just about tender, but still in shape. Remove and, if need be, reheat the onion slices quickly. Put them on the toast evenly, then make a layer of the fish, then the tomatoes. Put on the large slivers of melting cheese, if used, and pour over the egg mixture. Put under the grill, lower the heat a little and leave until lightly browned. Serve immediately

VARIATION You could substitute fresh – or canned – tuna for the swordfish. Heat the caned tuna through very briefly or it will become stringy and dry.

SWORDFISH STEAKS WITH FENNEL

This combination of swordfish, fennel and basil is based on a recipe of Paul Minchelli’s. He was one of the first in France to serve marinaded fish and very lightly cooked fish in his restaurants. He has revolutionized the cooking of the firm meaty fish, such as tuna, swordfish, porbeagle and tope. In the old days, you were told to cook them ‘as if they were veal’, i.e. for at least 35 minutes, even longer: nowadays, the cooking is brief and to the point, the fish in consequence is no longer dry and stringy.

Serves 6

6 slices of swordfish, 1½ cm (½ inch) thick

salt, pepper

olive oil

4 cloves garlic, crushed, skinned, finely chopped

6 small bulbs of fennel, sliced, some of the leaves saved

6 slices mozzarella cheese

2 tablespoons pine kernels

leaves of 1 small bunch of basil

3 tablespoons grated Sardinian pecorino or Parmesan or the two mixed

Season the fish with salt and pepper and set aside. Pour a thin layer of oil into a sauté pan and cook the chopped garlic in it slowly to perfume the oil. Do not let it colour. After about 5 minutes, add the sliced fennel and let it cook for 10 minutes. Taste it from time to time – you may like it harder than I do.

Heat up a heavy non-stick pan and put in the swordfish to cook like a steak. Turn it after 30 seconds, and give it another 30 seconds. Put it on top of the gently bubbling fennel, cover the pan and give it another minute. The fish should be supple and soft, if you press it.

Remove the fish, mix the reserved fennel leaves, chopped, into the cooked fennel and then put it all on a serving plate. Place the fish on top, then the slices of the mozzarella on the fish. Keep this warm while you chop the pine kernels and basil, and mix with the cheese. Spread over the fish, put under the grill until the mixture softens on top of the swordfish and the nuts turn a light brown. Serve immediately.

TOPE see SHARKS

† TROUT, CHAR, GRAYLING & WHITEFISH

Salmo spp., Salvelinus spp., Thymallus spp. & Coregonus spp.

The best trout, whatever the size, variety or place may be, is the one you catch yourself and eat within an hour or two. Given these happy circumstances, the style of cooking hardly