SUNDAYS WITH MARLENA SPIELER-FILO WRAPPED FISH

This is a delicious easy to make filo wrapped fish with a very flavorful tomato sauce.

1lb salmon or other fish fillet
1 lemon
2Tbsp olive oil
1 onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
1 red or green bell pepper chopped
5 cloves garlic chopped or to taste
14oz canned chopped tomatoes
1/2 C tomato sauce
4Tbs chopped Italian parsley or cilantro or a combination of both
large pinch of allspice
cayenne pepper to taste
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of sugar, enough so the sauce is not too tart from the tomatoes
6-8 sheets filo dough


Sprinkle the fish fillets with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice. Set aside an prepare the sauce.

Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the chopped onion,celery and pepper and saute until vegetables are tender. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so, then add the tomatoes and tomato sauce and cook until the tomatoes reach a sauce consistency. Stir in the parsley and season with allspice, cayenne pepper, sugar and salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.


Take one sheet of filo pastry and brush with olive oil and place the second sheet on top. Place a fish fillet on the pastry, towards the bottom third of the pastry then top with 2 spoonfuls of the tomato sauce and spread it over the fish. Wrap the fish in the pastry and place on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining fish fillets, sauce and pastry. There should be about half of the sauce remaining to serve with the fish. Bake the fish for 10-15 min. or until the filo is golden brown. Serve immediately with the remaining sauce.
Note: Filo dough does not reheat well if there are any left overs. The best thing to do is to take the filo dough off any of the left over fillets and store. There will be a recipe following to make use of the left over fish and sauce.
If you have never used filo dough before this is a good recipe to try using it. It is easy to just wrap up the fish in it and to give you a feel for working with it. Important thing is don't let it dry out. What dough you are not using put a piece of plastic wrap over it and then cover with a damp towel or paper towel. If it dries out, and it does quickly it will just crumble to pieces.
Do not make this in advance..the filo dough gets soggy if left to sit with a filling inside. Wrap all the fish and place it immediately in the oven.
This fish goes well with my next recipe, cauliflower with garlic crumbs.
Also check out Shankari and Mel's blogs for their Sunday's with Marlena features.