Involtini di prosciutto e platessa alla mugnaia - Prosciutto & fish rolls à la Meunière

We spent the day at the beach in Liguria on Saturday with friends. The weather was not great and the beach we went to was not the prettiest the region has to offer, but it was the perfect meeting point with our friends, who were travelling from the opposite direction. We brought blankets and sandwiches. We stuffed ourselves silly on foccaccia (for those who don't know, foccaccia comes from Liguria). The kids dug holes and made sand cakes. They threw stones and pebbles into the water and ran around barefoot in the waves. It is always amazing how busy a little grey, cold wet sand can keep children of all ages. And it is reassuring to see that despite the world we live in, surrounded by plasma screens, blu rays, ipods, ipads, iphones, x boxes, wii, playstation - you name it, kids can still create a whole adventure using a few different colored pebbles, a stick and a bucket of water.

To remember the nice day, yesterday we had fish.

Opposites attract. This dish is living proof of that theory. Surf'n'turf is called mare e monti (literally sea and mountains) in Italian. It may seem a little unusual to combine cured pork and fish but the saltiness of the prosciutto tenfolds the flavor of this delicate fish, making it much more interesting. Add a sort of meunière sauce to it, a few capers and you will be set.

I used plaice for this dish. It is a European, very common flat saltwater fish. Sole haddock can be used as substitutes for this recipe.*

Ingredients

plaice fillets or substitute

prosciutto (1 slice per fillet)

flour

butter

capers

salt

pepper

olive oil

1 lemon

(chopped parsley)

(white wine)

Place the fillets skin side up and cover with a slice of prosciutto. Roll them up and then roll in salt-seasoned flour. Place in a baking dish and sprinkle with the zest of the lemon. Place a little pillow of butter on each fillet and scatter a few more pieces around. Squeeze the juice from the lemon over the fish, drizzle with a little olive oil, add some capers, some fresh pepper and cook in pre-heated oven at 160-170°C for about 25 minutes. If you have an open bottle of white wine, splash a little in whilst baking. Garnish with some fresh chopped parsley (I didn't have any). 

*While researching substitutes for plaice, I unfortunately found out from Wikipedia that plaice, haddock and sole, along with other major bottom-feeding fish, are listed by the ICES as "outside safe biological limits." Meaning some kinds are overfished in some areas.