The Sicilian version of Roasted Whole Fish with potatoes and cherry tomatoes uses abundant olive oil and a limited amount of herbs and other condiments. Boiled potatoes are placed at the bottom of the baking pan to avoid the fish from sticking to it and at the same time have a side dish ready to serve with the fish; the cherry tomatoes are placed on top, to protect the fish from the oven’s high heat and to add the sweet-tart taste of the tomato, intensified by the roasting process and also to give an attractive color to the dish.

The fish is stuffed with a little parsley, a piece of garlic, salt, and pepper. A little wine is added to burst all the flavors and the capers… The capers with their salty and sour tangy flavor, with their pungent aroma, introduce a new attribute to the mosaic of the various fragrances and tastes, and… because capers are abundant in Sicily, they appear in many recipes and turn out to be almost a required feature to this and many other Sicilian dishes!

Seabass (branzino), porgy (sarago), snappers or grouper (cernia) weighing about a pound would be the ideal portion size. It does not matter what kind of fish you are cooking, the preparation is the same. The most important quality of seafood is freshness. Roasted, baked, broiled, fried, steamed or boiled fresh fish has a nice smell, an agreeable taste that can be strong like swordfish and fish of the blue family, or a subdued taste as in bass, porgies, groupers or mullets or a mild taste as in the whiting, sole, flounders, turbots and snappers, to name few of the most common fish. Fish must be cooked fresh when the flesh is firm, and all of its qualities can be savored and appreciated.

Most of the times, in Sicily and in many parts of the world, people living in coastal areas usually cook the fish whole and simply dressed with salt. When cooking any fish whole, because the skin seals in the moisture, the flesh remains tender and sweet and it develops an inebriating saline scent, that in Sicily we call sapore di mare– the taste of the sea. Typically, whole fish are roasted, baked, fried or grilled in heavy iron skillets or in heavy metal grills; boiled fish is usually part of a special diet and is served with mayonnaise or olive oil and lemon dressing or with other condiments; whole fish are rarely cooked in sauce. The following preparation, roasted whole fish with potatoes and cherry tomatoes, is not an exclusive Sicilian dish as it is similar to recipes that can be found in many Italian regional and international cuisines.