This dish always reminds me of Rome. I first had it in Rome in 2000 when I spent a month at a language school there and stayed in a flat owned by some friends. I had a favourite restaurant near the flat and the first time I had this dish, the fish was rombo – turbot: a glorious fish and quite expensive here. The flat was central enough that I could walk into the centre – the Coliseum, Spanish Steps, etc. – but far enough away from the tourist areas to have lovely, simple local restaurants nearby, full of local people, and with very reasonable prices.

I’m pretty sure I’ve put this on the blog before but a quick search revealed that I’d put on more cod recipes than I knew I’d ever cooked (though I did cook them all!) and failed to go far enough back in time to this recipe. The blog celebrated its 13th birthday recently – 26 July (and WordPress always send me a reminder) – and little did I realise all those years ago that I’d still be writing here 13 years later. The blog has become part of my life. I don’t write nearly so often as I did at the beginning, but it’s still something I love to do when I try a new recipe, visit a new restaurant, travel – and it’s averaging 539 views at day at the moment, which encourages me to think it’s worth doing and I’m not writing into a void! And the global travel app, GPSmyCity still publish many of my travel posts; over 70 to date. It’s become a much-loved companion in my life and some of my lovely followers go right back to those early days and I thank them for still being with me.

The recipe seemed like an easy dish to prepare this evening. I’m working over the weekend – coincidently editing a book of food stories with recipes – and I wanted something a little bit special for a Saturday evening, appropriate for the warm summer’s day, but something familiar and easy to prepare. I work quite often over weekends; it’s the nature of freelance work and I count it as a bonus that it frees up weekdays to do things like visit art galleries (click here) when it’s quieter than weekends; to spend time with grandsons before and after school on some days. I decided to go slightly off-piste today and added some capers to the dish, but other than that, it’s what I’ve cooked for years, barely a recipe, more a ‘put things together’ guide. Here it is and if you try it, I do hope you enjoy it as much as I always do!

Cod with Potatoes, Tomatoes & Capers

• a few small new potatoes – as many as you’d like to eat!
• a handful of cherry tomatoes, about 5 or 6
• a teaspoon of capers
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1 piece of cod loin (or other white fish)
• fish seasoning or mixed dried herbs

First of all, slice your potatoes – about 5mm – and boil them in salted water until just tender. 

Drain the potatoes and put in a small ovenproof dish. Add the tomatoes, cut in half, and the capers. Season with salt and pepper and then drizzle over some olive oil. Gently turn everything so all the ingredients – particularly the potatoes – are nicely coated in the oil. Put into a 200C/Fan 180/Gas 6 oven for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are starting to brown a little bit.

I like to buy these wild line-caught cod loins from M&S. They come in packs of two, so I put one in the freezer when I’m just cooking for myself. I try to buy packs with roughly equal-sized pieces of fish. Today one was quite a bit longer and I contemplated whether I should freeze half … but then decided that really it was just a nice, generous portion! I had to cut it in half though to fit the small dish I was cooking it all in.

Lay the cod on top of the vegetables and drizzle over a little more oil on top, rubbing it over gently with your fingers so the fish is well coated.

Then I sprinkled over some of this Fish Seasoning I buy in Waitrose. But you can always use some mixed herbs instead, or a fresh herb like thyme, if you prefer.

Put the dish back in the oven for 10 minutes. The fish will cook quite quickly.

Transfer to a serving plate or shallow bowl. 

I made a nice mixed salad to go with it and grabbed a small can of Pecorino white wine from the fridge – very appropriately from Rome!

It was nice enough to eat in the garden and this seemed like a perfect summer supper. All the gorgeous flavours come together beautifully in the one-pot fishy wonder and even though I was sat in Twickenham, memories of Rome brought a smile to my face.