Swordfish in Tomato Sauce with Potatoes (Pesce Spada in Umido)

What a beautiful tasting stew! The swordfish was succulent to the point of melting in your mouth. Vin Santo (the wine of the Saints) is an Italian dessert wine. It can be a deep golden or amber color with a sweet, often nutty, taste. Swordfish comes as steaks or loin pieces. Swordfish does not freeze well, although some frozen-at-sea fish maintains its good quality. The color of quality swordfish varies from white to pinkish-beige, but if it is tinged with brown, that’s a sign of an off flavor. Swordfish do have dark meat along with the white, but it should be cherry-red, not brown.

Serves 4
recipe from TasteItalia magazine

600g swordfish steaks, cut into chunks
175ml olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
handful of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
500g tomatoes, skinned, seeds removed, puréed
250g potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
90ml Vin Santo
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place half of the oil into a large saucepan and sauté the onion, carrot and parsley together for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and continue to simmer for about 20 minutes. Add the potatoes and leave to simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Put the remaining oil in a flameproof casserole dish and brown the swordfish chunks over a medium heat. Transfer the swordfish to the tomato sauce, cover, and leave to simmer for 25 minutes, adding a little hot water whenever the dish seems to dry out. Sprinkle with Vin Santo, season and cook for a further 5 minutes before serving.

The Culinary Chase’s Note: A relatively easy meal to prepare with my family asking for seconds! I used sherry as a substitute for Vin Santo. If you’re not a swordfish fan, then try using tuna instead. Also, if you don’t have time to prepare the tomatoes, a can of chopped tomatoes will do the trick and you can either purée the tomatoes or leave them as is.