Plaice in tomato saffron sauce

Last Friday I went to Waitrose with a recipe in my mind, from an old cutting from Taste Italia.
It used to be one of my favourite food magazines, and I was very sad when they stopped publishing it, and combined it with the travelling magazine. I don't care much for expensive villa holidays or luxury spa days.

It was a recipe for skate wings in tomato sauce with saffron. Skate wings were there all right, but after much deliberating over the cost, I changed my mind and went to the frozen fish section to look for a less expensive alternative. I couldn't find any frozen skate, but found a pack of 4 plaice fillets for £3.99, which I thought was pretty reasonable. I have adapted the recipe to suit my purchase.

Plaice in tomato sauce
Ingredients:
5tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 tin of cherry tomatoes (Cirio Pomodorini)
10g fresh basil leaves, chopped
a pinch of saffron
a handful of sultanas
1tsp cider vinegar
sea salt, a pinch of sugar
4 plaice fillets (454g pack)

Heat the oil in a big frying pan, add the chopped garlic and cook for about 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the contents of the tin of cherry tomatoes and fresh basil, which has been chopped. Add a pinch of saffron, sultanas, vinegar and season well with sea salt and a pinch of sugar. Bring to boil, then lower the heat and cook on low, simmering for about 20 minutes. If the sauce gets too thick, add a bit of water.
Place the defrosted plaice fillets in a slightly oiled ceramic baking dish, pour the tomato sauce over it.
Place the dish in the oven preheated to 180C for 20-25 minutes.
Serve hot, with a nice chunk of bread to mop up the sauce.

In this recipe I used Cirio Pomodorini (cherry tomatoes). I have slightly squashed them with a wooden spoon, while cooking the sauce. You might easily swap them for tomato passata or tinned chopped tomatoes.
Cirio pomodorini are sweet and intense in flavour, they were canned in tomato sauce to preserve their beautiful taste.

The addition of saffron and sultanas made this tomato sauce extra special. Saffron is an expensive spice, but you can find it for less, if you buy supermarket own variety, I found a jar of saffron for £2 in Sainsbury's.

Disclosure: I received a selection of Cirio products for the purposes of testing in recipes. All opinions are my own.