A recipe for Fish Stick Panzanella from ‘The Blue Food Cookbook’ improves the frozen staple

Fish sticks, like any other frozen, breaded product, appear to be a utilitarian food. But there’s no reason why fish sticks, which can be very tasty indeed, can’t be given a little class by pairing them with marquee ingredients, such as fresh vine tomatoes.

Panzanella, rustic Italian A salad made of yesterday’s bread crumbs, brought back to life with fresh tomatoes, herbs and crunchy sweet onion juice, is a perfect starting point for changing anyone’s mind about fish sticks.

In this recipe from “The Blue Food Cookbook” by Andrew Zimmern and Barton Seaver, crunchy, just-cooked fish sticks replace the bread and do the job wonderfully.

Fish Stick “Panzanella”

Services: 4

Material:

12 ounces prepared breaded fish sticks

2 tablespoons whole grain mustard

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Salt

1 ½ pounds heirloom tomatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 red onion, thinly sliced ​​(about 1 cup)

1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced ​​(about 1 ½ cups)

4 cups arugula

Freshly ground black pepper-fennel mixture or black pepper

guidance:

Prepare the fish sticks according to package directions, adding an extra minute or two of cooking time so they get extra crispy.

To make the vinaigrette, mix mustard, oil, vinegar and salt to taste in a large bowl. Place the tomatoes in a separate bowl, drizzle a few spoons of vinaigrette over them and season with salt.

Combine onion, fennel and arugula in bowl with vinaigrette and toss. Remove the fish sticks from the oven. Cut or tear each stick into pieces approximately the size of croutons (about 3 pieces per fish stick). To serve, arrange the fennel-arugula mixture on a platter or plate and top with seasoned tomatoes and hot fish stick pieces. Sprinkle black pepper-fennel mixture.

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Excerpted from “The Blue Food Cookbook” by Andrew Zimmern and Barton Seaver in collaboration with Fed by Blue. Excerpt provided by Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.