Tilapia piccata
Delicate golden tilapia in a bright lemon, butter and caper sauce over angel hair, the Italian restaurant classic in half an hour.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 2
- About $3.41 a serving
- 630 calories
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 4 oz angel hair pasta
- 2 tilapia fillets, thawed if frozen
- 3 tbsp butter, divided
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- 1 lemon, juiced (about 3 tablespoons)
- 1 tbsp capers, drained
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
From your pantry
- 2 tsp salt, divided
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Each serving has about 630 calories, 38 g protein, 59 g carbs and 28 g fat, and costs about $3.41 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No tilapia fillets? Cod fillets work.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
- No fresh parsley? Cilantro works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Bring a medium pot of water with 1½ teaspoons of the salt.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
the tilapia dry, with the rest of the salt and the pepper, then dredge it in the flour and tap off the extra.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
Dolly’s tip: Just a thin dusting. It browns the fish and thickens the sauce a little.Heat the oil and 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large nonstick over medium-high heat until the butter foams.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium-high heat
Cook the tilapia 2 to 3 minutes per side, until and it flakes easily.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min
Food safety: Fish is done at 145°F, when the middle looks opaque and flakes apart easily with a fork.
Move it to plates.
Drop the angel hair into the water and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until tender, then .
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
High heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Turn the to medium, add the garlic and for 30 seconds.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Stir. Stirring means moving food around with a spoon or spatula so it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick. Unless the recipe says constantly, every so often is plenty, and it gives food time to brown.
How you’ll know: When you drag the spoon across the bottom, nothing is sticking or scorching.
Medium heatTimer: 30 sec
Pour in the broth and lemon juice, and 2 to 3 minutes, until by about half.
Scrape up the browned bits. It means loosening the brown bits stuck to the pan with a wooden spoon, usually right after adding liquid. Those bits are concentrated flavor, and they melt into the sauce.
How you’ll know: The bottom of the pan looks clean again, and the liquid turns darker and richer.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Reduce. Reducing means simmering a liquid with the lid off so some of the water steams away. The sauce gets thicker and its flavor gets stronger.
How you’ll know: The level drops in the pan, and the sauce coats the back of a spoon instead of running off.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Turn the heat to low and swirl in the rest of the butter and the capers until the sauce looks glossy.
Low heat
Dolly’s tip: Swirl it in over low heat. Butter melted gently makes the sauce silky; boiling makes it greasy.the angel hair with half the sauce, set the fish on top, spoon the rest over and scatter the parsley.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
