Baked Imperial Needlefish Steaks

Today I want to present you this typical recipe from Messina.
The imperial needlefish is a typical fish from the Strait of Messina caught with a harpoon, and it has a sword-like snout like the swordfish but shorter and stubbier, and the body is long and streamlined.
This fish can weigh up to 55 lbs.
It has dark red meat tending to brick, sometimes even salmon-colored and it is a tasty juicy and tender fish suitable for various cooking methods, such as grilled, stew of imperial needlefish.
Today I present it to you baked with typical ingredients of the stew.

P.s. you can make this recipe with any type of fish steak.

Thought for you:

Difficulty: Very easy
Cost: Very economical
Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Portions: 4
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Regional Italian
Region: Sicily
Seasonality: Summer, Fall, Spring

452.59 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 452.59 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 20.14 (g) of which sugars 5.13 (g)
Proteins 116.31 (g)
Fat 17.02 (g) of which saturated 1.76 (g)of which unsaturated 0.08 (g)
Fibers 3.73 (g)
Sodium 717.92 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 250 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients

Let’s do the shopping

21.2 oz needlefish (imperial)
1 g Tropea red onion
10.6 oz datterini tomatoes
1.1 oz capers in oil
3.5 oz green olives in brine
3.5 oz celery
to taste salt
to taste pepper
to taste dried oregano
1.4 oz extra virgin olive oil
to taste roast seasoning

Tools

What we need to make

1 Knife
1 Cutting board
2 Bowls
1 Baking tray

Steps

To make

First, we need to know the type of fish we are talking about.
As you can see, it has a long and streamlined body and a smaller and stubbier sword than the swordfish.
For this dish, we need slices at least 0.5 inches thick. Imperial needlefish steaks usually come with the central bone, you can leave it, but if it bothers you, you can remove it.
Desalt the capers,
and the olives, rinse them both several times until the excess salt is removed.
Take a Tropea red onion and slice it very thinly, then
move on to the cherry tomatoes, cut them in half,
and remove the strings from the celery, then cut it into slices.
Now distribute all the ingredients in the baking tray, start with a thin layer of extra virgin olive oil, lay down the slices, then gradually add all the ingredients:
The red of Tropea, the capers, olives, cherry tomatoes, celery, oil, salt, pepper, and oil
Preheat the oven to 356°F and bring it to temperature.
Since there are also some vegetables in this cooking, we can use the ventilated setting, otherwise, if there were no vegetables, it would be better to use static.
Cook the fish steaks for about 10 minutes, then take out the tray, flip them over, and continue cooking for another 5 or 6 minutes.
After the time, take them out of the tray and check if the central bone can detach from the meat; if you can, it means the fish is cooked, otherwise continue cooking for a few more minutes until the bone detaches from the steak.
Add some basil leaves and the baked imperial needlefish steaks are ready, enjoy your meal.