It’s fish week again at Chez Quimby. My husband caught a ton of trout and redfish last weekend, so I’m trying out some new recipes. A while back I bought a spicy simmering sauce in a bottle and cooked it up with some fish and pasta. I decided to try to make my own version with the ton of onions, bell peppers, hot peppers, and basil. It ended up taking some tinkering*, but the final product was super tasty.

1 onion, finely chopped
1 large (or a bunch of small) bell peppers, finely chopped
1-2 hot peppers, finely chopped
3-4 cloves or garlic, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 large can fire roasted tomatoes
2 Tbs chopped basil
splash of cream
salt and pepper to taste

Combine first 7 ingredients in slow cooker and stir, cook on high for about an hour. Add tomatoes and cook for another two hours. Add basil towards the end of the cooking time. When the vegetables have broken down, run through blender until smooth. Add back to the slow cooker, add a little cream and season to taste.

I sauteed the trout in a frying pan in some grapeseed oil, flipped it, and added  the sauce on top and simmered until the fish was cooked through. I served it over some easy polenta – 3/4 cup cornmeal to 3 cups of water, a little salt and a good handful of parmesan.

* So, when the sauce was done cooking in the slow cooker it was kind of bitter. I have no idea why  – maybe some of the peppers were bitter? Anyway, I did what I normally do and Facetimed my mom and brother in California. Best advice ever: take a little sauce out and doctor it instead of just blindly adding stuff to the pot. Who knew? A little cream and salt later and it was delish. Woo!