Spigola al sale — salt-crusted sea bass with salmoriglio potatoes
Whole sea bass gently steams beneath a damp coarse-salt crust directly against its skin, which allows just enough salt to reach the pearly flesh. The crust is broken at the table. Small potatoes cooked in their skins are crushed into warm salmoriglio, a sauce of olive oil, lemon, oregano, garlic and parsley.
Ingredients for two
| 1000 g | Whole sea bass (lavrak), gutted and scaled 1 sea bass of 1 kg, or 2 of 500 g if that is all the fishmonger has, gutted but NOT scaled: specify this when buying. The scales protect the flesh and come away with the skin in one piece at serving; fresh that day |
| 2000 g | Coarse salt 2 × 1 kg packs, for the crust only; discarded after cooking |
| 1050 g | Water 200 g to dampen the coarse salt, 850 g to cook the potatoes |
| 400 g | Potatoes Small whole potatoes, cooked in their skins (patate lesse) |
| 70 g | Extra virgin olive oil Extra virgin: 6 tbsp for the salmoriglio, 1 tbsp uncooked over the exposed flesh |
| 240 g | Lemon 2 lemons: zest the first, then cut into 4 thin slices for the fish cavity; squeeze the second for 25 g juice for the salmoriglio |
| 1 g | Dried oregano 1 tsp, rubbed between your fingers |
| 4 g | Fresh thyme 4 sprigs |
| 15 g | Flat-leaf parsley Stalks in the fish cavity, chopped leaves in the salmoriglio |
| 10 g | Garlic 2 cloves: 1 halved for the fish cavity, 1 crushed for the salmoriglio and removed before serving |
| 11 g | Fine salt 8 g in the potato water (about 10 g/litre), 3 g in the salmoriglio; do not salt the fish, as the crust does this |
| 0.6 g | Ground black pepper 1/4 tsp |
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200°C conventional. Finely zest the first lemon and reserve the zest, then cut it into 4 thin, seedless slices. Squeeze the second lemon to obtain 25 g juice. Rinse the sea bass under cold water and pat dry inside and out with kitchen paper, without slashing the skin. Fill the cavity with the lemon slices, 1 halved garlic clove, the 4 thyme sprigs and the parsley stalks, then bring the edges of the belly together to close it. Do not salt the fish.
- In the large mixing bowl, combine the 2 kg coarse salt with 200 g water to make damp sand that holds together when pressed in your hand, without dripping. Spread a 1.5 cm bed of salt on the tray, slightly longer and wider than the fish. Lay the sea bass directly on the salt.
- Cover the sea bass with all the remaining damp salt, pressing with your palms to form a continuous crust 1.5–2 cm thick, including the head; the tail may protrude. Bake on the middle shelf for 35–40 minutes for a 1 kg fish, or 28–30 minutes for two 500 g fish in separate crusts.
- During the first 15 minutes, make the salmoriglio: crush the second garlic clove with the flat of a knife and put in a bowl with 60 g olive oil, 25 g lemon juice, the reserved zest, oregano rubbed between your fingers, chopped parsley leaves, 3 g salt and the pepper. Whisk with a fork and leave to infuse at room temperature.
- Fifteen minutes after the fish goes into the oven, put the washed, whole, unpeeled potatoes in the saucepan with 850 g cold water and 8 g salt. Bring to the boil, then simmer gently for 20–25 minutes until a knife tip enters without resistance. Drain immediately, reserving 1 tbsp cooking water, then return to the warm saucepan, cover and keep off the heat.
- Take out the tray and rest for 5 minutes: the crust should be hard, lightly golden and hollow-sounding when tapped. Crack it firmly along the back of the fish with the back of a large spoon, lift off the salt slabs and brush away the crystals. Check the fish: the eye should be white and opaque, a thermometer near the head should read about 58°C and the flesh should lift from the bone in pearly flakes. If still translucent, return to the oven for 5 minutes without rebuilding the crust.
- Remove the garlic from the salmoriglio and whisk in 1 tbsp hot potato water to emulsify it. Roughly crush the potatoes with a fork into half the sauce. Serve the sea bass hot, using a spoon: lift off the top skin, which comes away in one piece, remove the upper flesh and put it on the first plate, lift away the central bone with the head, then free the lower flesh for the second plate. Drizzle uncooked oil over the flesh and serve the remaining salmoriglio in a sauceboat. Discard all the salt.
Fish-free
- Whole sea bass (lavrak), gutted and scaled → Skinless chicken breast escalopes (150 g each) 320 g (2 escalopes of 160 g each, 1.5 cm thick, prepared by the kosher butcher; use one for a meal with one fish plate and one fish-free plate)
- add Fine salt 3 g (1.5 g per escalope)
- add Extra virgin olive oil 10 g (1 tbsp for the parcels, 5 g per escalope)
- add Lemon 60 g (1/2 lemon: 2 thin slices and 1 tsp juice per parcel)
- add Garlic 3 g (1/2 crushed clove per parcel)
- add Fresh thyme 2 g (1 sprig per parcel)
- without Coarse salt
- For the fish-free plate, use no salt crust: bake a chicken parcel in the same oven, in a small dish separate from the fish tray. For one plate of each, use a 500 g sea bass for the fish plate (1 kg coarse salt dampened with 100 g water, baked for 28–30 minutes) and a 160 g chicken escalope for the fish-free plate. For two chicken plates, make two parcels with no coarse salt.
- Oil each escalope with 5 g oil, season with 1.5 g salt and lay on 2 thin lemon slices in the centre of a sheet of baking paper. Add half a crushed garlic clove, a thyme sprig and 1 tsp lemon juice, then seal the parcel tightly by folding the edges three times.
- Put the parcel in its small dish into the oven when the fish has 15 minutes left to cook. Bake at 200°C for 13–15 minutes: the paper should puff up, the juices run clear and the centre reach 70°C. Rest for 3 minutes with the paper still closed; the fish and chicken come out together. Prepare the potatoes and salmoriglio together, dividing the sauce between two bowls before any contact with the proteins. Spoon the parcel juices over the potatoes on the fish-free plate.
One cooking session, two plates, sharing the oven, potatoes and salmoriglio. Use separate dishes and utensils for fish and meat, and divide the sauce before it comes into contact with either protein.
Lighter version
- Extra virgin olive oil : 40 g
Make the salmoriglio with just 30 g oil and 15 g lemon juice, keeping a ratio of at least 2:1, and drizzle 1 tbsp uncooked oil over the flesh.
4 tbsp oil instead of 7; salt-baked fish needs none during cooking, and the dish stays the same.
On your plate
Recipe
1142 kcal · protein 113 g · carbs 36 g · fat 57 g
Quantities per person
- 500 g Whole sea bass (lavrak), gutted and scaled
- 1000 g Coarse salt
- 525 g Water
- 200 g Potatoes
- 35 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 120 g Lemon
- 0.5 g Dried oregano
- 2 g Fresh thyme
- 7.5 g Flat-leaf parsley
- 5 g Garlic
- 5.5 g Fine salt
- 0.3 g Ground black pepper
Fish-free version
754 kcal · protein 44 g · carbs 37 g · fat 44 g
Quantities per person
- 525 g Water
- 200 g Potatoes
- 40 g Extra virgin olive oil
- 150 g Lemon
- 0.5 g Dried oregano
- 3 g Fresh thyme
- 7.5 g Flat-leaf parsley
- 6.5 g Garlic
- 7 g Fine salt
- 0.3 g Ground black pepper
- 160 g Skinless chicken breast escalopes (150 g each)
Cooking tips
Order the sea bass gutted but NOT scaled: the scales protect the flesh and come away with the skin in one piece at serving. If the fishmonger has scaled it anyway, cook it directly in the salt as it is, as most Italian kitchens do, then remove the skin when serving and do not eat it. The same technique works with sea bream (orata al sale). The damp salt can be mixed 1 hour ahead and left until needed; a drizzle of uncooked oil over the exposed flesh is essential. Alternatively, roast the potatoes for 35 minutes in the same oven alongside the fish tray, with 20 g oil and a rosemary sprig. The crust is discarded, not eaten. The next day, flake the cold leftovers with lemon, oil, parsley and capers for an insalata di spigola.
Spigola al sale from coastal Italian cooking; timings and proportions cross-checked with Cucchiaio d'Argento (https://www.cucchiaio.it/ricetta/spigola-sale/). A damp-salt crust without egg, with Sicilian salmoriglio for the potatoes.
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