Pan Roasted Sea Bass with King Prawns and Salsa Verde

Pan roasted sea bass is one of those dishes that looks considerably more impressive than the effort involved. A single fillet cooked in butter until the skin crisps and the flesh just turns opaque, king prawns on top, the whole thing cut through with a sharp salsa verde. Ten minutes, start to finish.

This one comes from my son Danny. He shops the Grimsby wholesale fish market most weeks, buys whatever looks good, and sends me his notes. I write it up. Danny doesn't fuss. When the fish is this fresh, you don't need to.

For more ways with prawns, from curries to tapas, see my prawn recipes.

The Salsa Verde

Make this first. It takes three minutes and gets better as it sits — the garlic softens slightly in the acid, the capers open up, and by the time the fish is ready the flavours have pulled together.

Capers are a thread through Danny's cooking. They turn up in almost everything he makes, and they're never out of place.

Pan Roasted Sea Bass with King Prawns and Salsa Verde — The Recipe

Serves 1

The fish and prawns

• 1 sea bass fillet, skin-on
• 100g raw king prawns, peeled and deveined
• 25g butter
• 1 tsp olive oil
• Salt and black pepper

The salsa verde

• Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp capers, roughly chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely grated
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 3–4 tbsp good olive oil
• Salt and black pepper

Method

1. Make the salsa verde. Combine the parsley, capers, garlic, lemon juice and mustard in a bowl. Add the olive oil and stir well. Season to taste and set aside.
2. Prepare the fish. Pat the sea bass fillet dry with kitchen paper. Season both sides with salt and pepper.
3. Cook the fish. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a high heat. Add the butter — it should foam immediately. Lay the fillet in skin-side down and cook for 3–4 minutes without moving it. The skin should be golden and beginning to crisp at the edges.
4. Add the prawns. Flip the fillet carefully. Add the king prawns to the pan alongside it and cook for a further 2–3 minutes, turning the prawns once, until the fish is just cooked through and the prawns are pink and curled.
5. Plate and dress. Lay the sea bass on the plate skin-side up. Pile the king prawns on top. Spoon the salsa verde generously over everything and serve immediately.

On timing. Sea bass overcooks quickly — the flesh should be just opaque all the way through, not white and firm. The prawns will tell you when everything is ready: once they're fully pink, you're done.

The Boulangère Potatoes

My own recipe for boulangère potatoes is here — sliced thinly and baked in stock with thyme, in the similar small cast iron dish you can see in the photo. They take about an hour at 160°C fan, so get them in well before you think about the fish.

They're not a side dish — they're the reason the last few forkfuls are better than the first. The salsa verde runs off the fish and the prawns and pools in the potatoes, and that's where the dish ends.

Cooking a whole fish instead? I baked a lubina in a salt crust, and it's one of the simplest ways to cook one.

Salt Baked Sea Bass

If you'd rather skip the prawns and cook fillets with Mediterranean vegetables, I have a crispy-skin version of that too.

Pan-Seared Sea Bass with Mediterranean Vegetables

And if you would rather bake a single fillet in a sealed parcel with lemon, tomatoes and capers, there is a gentler version.

Baked Sea Bass Fillets in Foil: Sea Bass En Papillote for One

You will find every one of these in my Sea Bass Recipes guide.

If this pan roasted sea bass found its way onto your table, you can buy me a coffee ☕ — it helps keep the site going.

Footnote

This pan roasted sea bass recipe is part of my Prawn Recipes collection — every prawn dish on the site, grouped by the kind of meal.

It is also part of my Sea Bass Recipes guide and my Inland Fish & Seafood Recipes hub, and is one of the dishes in From the Family Kitchen — recipes from the people who feed me well.

Find more recipes and food adventures at The Flexible Chef recipe hubs.

Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures — The Flexible Chef