Busy foodies will love this delicious supper dish; you’ll have it on the table in under 20 minutes and it works with any firm fleshed white fish such as cod, haddock, halibut, pollack, etc.

I like to make my own pesto and freeze it in small ice cube trays but any good quality store-bought pesto works beautifully – a great shortcut. You don’t have to skin the tomatoes either; I just prefer them that way but not skinning them will shave another 2 minutes off the prep time, if you don’t care either way.

This also works brilliantly with defrosted fish fillets so there’s no need to panic if you can’t find decent fresh fish on a Monday, for instance – and as far as I’m concerned there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using frozen fish or veg.

Pesto Baked Fish with Sweet Potato Mash

PESTO BAKED FISH WITH SWEET POTATO MASH

(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

20-24oz (570-680g) of boneless, skinless white fish cut into 4 equal portions

4 tablespoons of good quality pesto

2 large ripe tomatoes, skinned, de-seeded and chopped

24oz (700g) of sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into smallish chunks

7-8oz (200g) of frozen peas

The finely shredded zest & juice of half a lemon

Freshly ground black pepper

Action:

Preheat the oven to 390F (200C).

Oil a small baking dish and arrange the fish in a single layer.

To skin the tomatoes, cut a small ‘X’ in the skin at the bottom and pour boiling water over them to cover. Drain after 30 seconds and slip the skins off.  Otherwise, just cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and chop into about ½ inch (1cm) dice.

Mix the chopped tomato into the pesto sauce and spoon the mixture onto the top of each fish fillet.

Bake the fish in the preheated oven for approx. 15 minutes or until just cooked through.

Meanwhile, cook the sweet potatoes in a pan of lightly salted boiling water for 12 minutes then add the frozen peas. Cook for another couple of minutes until the potatoes are tender; drain and return the veg to the pan then mash with a good sized knob of butter, adding the lemon zest, juice  – and finally, a good grind of freshly milled black pepper.

Divide the sweet potato & pea mash between 4 warmed plates and top each with a baked fish fillet.