As anyone who came across this blog would realise, I like to eat and I like to cook. However, I don’t really like faff. I’m not really a details girl outside of work. At work I have learnt to sit and plan, then execute things. At home, I’m getting better at being tidy and planning things but it’s not my default operating mode. A lot of my life has been a struggle to overcome nature (my dad’s free and easy ways) with nurture (how my mum would do it!).

This is very clear in how I cook.  I’m not one for long and complex recipes or ingredient lists. Short, simple and not to much mucking about. Any food that I cook again and again and takes longer than about an hour to get to the table is either really, really good or has a large element of doing a bit and then leaving it for a while.

This is a roundabout way of explaining why I like Bill Granger so much and why when I saw this recipe in Feed Me Now, I knew I was going to try it. It ticked all of my quick, easy, no faff rules and I had all the ingredients in the house.

There were some changes, I played about with the quantities at bit, it was still good though and the scope for changing it up is immense, I’m thinking that adding some chopped up anchovies and black olives would be great. The recipe specified chopped tomatoes and I didn’t have them, I overcame this by chopping them in the tin with scissors!

I ate it with mash and peas and it was great comfort food for a cold, wet day.

What

1 tablespoon oil

1 onion, chopped

Small handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tin (400g) tomatoes

2 cod steaks

1 tin (400g) tomatoes, chopped

How

1) Pre heat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4/350F

2) In a pan that can also go in the oven and has a lid, heat the oil and cook the onion and parsley over a medium heat, until the onion softens (about 5 minutes). 

3) Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

4) Add the tomatoes, stir and bring to the boil and then let simmer for about 10 minutes.

5) Add the fish, make sure the tomato sauce covers them and cover with the lid and place in the oven for 15 minutes.

6) Remove the lid and cook for a further 10 minutes.

7) You’re all done. Serve and eat.