Tilapia cooked in parchment with tomato olive spread

Roasted Tomato and Olive Spread

This is a very versatile spread that is great on sandwiches, with crackers, mixed in with rice, or add it to a vinaigrette. I even layered some in tilapia cooked in parchment paper. I like to make extra to freeze in ice cube trays so I always have it on hand.

• 1 head of garlic, cloves separated but peeling is not neccessary-it's easier to remove peels after roasting
• 1 pint of cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup mixture of green and kalamata olives, pitted
• 1 teaspoon herbs de provence
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1 tsp salt
• olive oil, enough to coat

Preheat oven to 350. In a roasting pan, toss all ingredients and roast for about 1 hour or until tomatoes collapse. Once cooled, slip the garlic out of their skins and put all ingredients in a food processor, pulsing until desired consistency.


Tilapia cooked in parchment with roasted tomato olive spread

I used the recipe above for this dish. I love cooking in parchment because it's easy, looks special, and all the flavors fuse together working their own magic.

• four 20 by 15 inch pieces of parchment paper
• four 6- to-8 ounce skinless flounder, tilapia or orange roughy fillets seasoned with salt
  
• 1/2 cup cooked brown or wild rice
• 1 cup fresh spinach, tightly packed
  
• 1/4 roasted tomato and olive spread (you can always use tapenade with sundried tomatoes)
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits
• 1/2 cup vegetable or chicken broth
  
• 1/2 dry white wine

Place a quarter of the rice on one half of the top piece of parchment, pour 1/4 of the broth and wine over the rice, and top it with one fourth of spinach, one fourth of the roasted olive tomato mixture, top with one filet and a quarter of the butter cut into thin slices to distribute evenly over the fish. Fold the other half of the parchment over the fillet, beginning with a folded corner twist and fold the edges together forming a half-heart-shaped packet, and seal the end tightly by twisting it. Make 3 more packets with the remaining parchment and ingredients in the same manner. (Alternatively, the fish mixture can be wrapped in sheets of foil, oiling only the inside.) Bake the packets on a baking sheet in the middle of a preheated 450°F. oven for 10-15 minutes (peek inside one of them to check) and cut them open before serving.