This weekend, grill some garfish - or use tommy ruffs - with a Sicilian-style stuffing full of flavour.

Recipes Rosa Matto | Styling Natalie Homan | Photographs Brendan Homan

Sicilian-style Black Point garfish or small tommies
serves 6

6 double fillets of garfish or tommy ruffs
3 tbsp fresh parsley leaves
1 garlic clove, minced
3 tbsp dried currants soaked in hot water for 5 minutes
3 tbsp pine nuts
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 small red onion
12-15 bay leaves
3 tbsp fresh mint leaves
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chop parsley and garlic together until very fine.  Add currants and pine nuts and chop roughly. Add breadcrumbs, salt and pepper to taste. Stir in olive oil, mixing thoroughly to bind.

Peel red onion and cut into sixths and “unlayer” these wedges. Blanch briefly in salted water to just soften, 1 minute. Cut double fillets into smaller portions. Place 1 tsp of filling on 1 half of a fish portion. Roll it up as neatly as possible and spear it on a skewer onto which you have already threaded a piece of onion and a bay leaf. Follow the fish with another slice of onion and bay leaf. Add a second fish (potentially third, depending on how big fish pieces are) and finish off with onion and bay leaf. (It is a good idea to run a second skewer through, parallel to the first so that the fish rolls don’t spin about and break as you turn them over the grill.)

Generously drizzle skewers with extra virgin olive oil. Grill or bake for about 8 minutes or until cooked through. Drizzle with herb oil before serving.

herb oil
200g soft herbs, parsley and mint
300g extra virgin olive oil
a coffee filter, for straining

Blanch desired herbs in boiling water for 30 seconds, then immediately refresh in a bowl of iced water. Squeeze herbs of any excess moisture, then pat them as dry as you can. Place herbs and oil into a blender and blend well.

Pour oil through a coffee filter suspended over a container and leave to strain overnight; avoid pressing the herbs. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

 

This recipe first appeared in the December 2023 issue of SALIFE magazine.