Recipes for cooking with fresh olive oil

Crispy Fried Fish With Neapolitan Red Sauce (Salsa Rossa)

For the fish

1½ cups (12 ounces) medium-body pale ale or beer, or plain seltzer water

2 cups flour, preferably unbleached all-purpose

1½ tablespoons sea salt, or more as needed

3 tablespoons plus about 3 cups extra-virgin olive oil

1 large egg white

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon, preferably an organic one

2 pounds skinless fish fillets, such as cod, haddock, halibut, snapper or similar

For the sauce

2 or 3 cloves garlic, sliced very thin or chopped

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

One 28-ounce can whole San Marzano tomatoes with their juices, chopped, or 4 pounds fresh tomatoes, cut into chunks

Sea salt

Pinch ground red chili pepper

½ teaspoon sugar

For the fish: Pour the beer or seltzer into a mixing bowl. Use a flour sifter and a wire whisk to gradually sift and whisk in 1 cup of the flour, whisking constantly until smooth. Gradually whisk in the salt and 3 tablespoons of oil, then sift and whisk in the remaining flour to form a batter with the consistency of heavy cream. (You might not need to use all the flour.) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap; let it rest for 2 hours at room temperature.

Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce: Cook the garlic in the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat until the garlic starts to soften; do not let it brown. Add the tomatoes and their juices, a good pinch of salt, the chili pepper and the sugar; increase the heat to medium and cook rapidly, stirring the tomatoes and further breaking them up. They should cook down and thicken in 15 or 20 minutes; fresh tomatoes will take longer than canned ones. Watch carefully toward the end to make sure the sauce doesn't scorch.

If using fresh tomatoes, put the sauce through the medium disk of a food mill. If using canned tomatoes, put them in a blender or food processor and pulse to a coarse consistency, with plenty of texture. If the sauce is too thin, put it back on medium-low heat and cook longer, stirring, until it has reached a thick, saucy consistency. The yield is about 2½ cups. If you're not using the sauce right away, transfer to a container, cover and refrigerate (for up to 2 days).

Back to the fish: Whisk the egg white in a medium bowl until it is quite stiff, then fold in the grated lemon zest. Add it to the rested, thickened batter and gently fold it in until thoroughly incorporated.

Cut the fish into chunks about 2 inches square - but don't be too fiddly about this. Pat the chunks dry with paper towels.

When ready to cook, pour the remaining 3 cups of oil into a pan deep enough for frying. You should have at least 2 inches of oil in the bottom of the pan. Set it over medium heat; heat the oil to 360 to 365 degrees. It's very important to get the oil up to the correct temperature before attempting to fry, so monitor the temperature with an instant-read thermometer.

(If you do not have a thermometer, test the oil by adding a little cube of bread when you think it's ready. If the cube sizzles immediately and starts to turn golden in less than 1 minute, the oil is hot enough. But a thermometer is more certain.)

Line a baking sheet with paper towels and set a wire cooling rack over it. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (to keep the fish warm while you fry in batches).

Once the oil is hot enough, pat the fish pieces dry once again. Drop a bit of batter into the oil and fry briefly until golden brown and crisped, then use tongs or a Chinese skimmer to transfer it to the rack to cool. Taste, and if the batter could use another pinch of salt, stir it in before you start coating the fish.

Dip a piece of fish into the batter to coat it, let excess batter drain off, then drop the fish into the hot oil. Continue with more fish pieces, but don't crowd the pan. Let the pieces bubble and sizzle in the oil, turning them so they brown on all sides, turning golden and crisp; this should take about 4 minutes. Keep testing the oil with your thermometer; if it drops below 350 degrees, stop frying and wait for the oil to heat up again. Similarly, if the oil gets too hot, it will burn the fish without cooking it through; if that happens, remove the pan from the heat and let it cool back down.

As the fish pieces finish frying, transfer them with a slotted spoon and set on the rack to drain, then transfer to the warm oven until you've finished frying all the fish. Of course, you can also serve the crispy fried fish without the sauce, perhaps with wedges of lemon to squeeze over.

Sprinkle with a little more salt and serve right away, passing the warm tomato sauce.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

From cookbook author and food writer Nancy Harmon Jenkins

Red Wine and Radicchio Risotto

4 cups homemade or no-salt-added chicken broth

1 medium red onion, finely chopped (1 cup)

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus a little more for drizzling

2 links fresh sweet Italian sausage, casings removed (4 to 5½ ounces total)

2 packed cups chopped or slivered radicchio (from 1 medium head, cored)

2 cups risotto rice, such as vialone nano, Carnaroli or arborio (about 13 ounces total)

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 cups full-bodied dry red wine

1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Heat the broth in a saucepan over medium heat; once it begins to bubble at the edges, reduce the heat to medium-low.

Combine the chopped onion and oil in a large, heavy saucepan over medium-low heat; cook just until the onion starts to soften.

Meanwhile, break up the sausage meat into small bits and add to the onion, stirring to incorporate. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the bits of meat have lost their raw look. Stir in half of the radicchio.

Once that radicchio has wilted, stir in the rice. Season lightly with salt and pepper; increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring, until the rice grains are thoroughly coated with fat and are turning opaque. Add a cup of the wine, stirring until it is absorbed by the rice, then add the remaining wine, stirring. Let the wine cook until it loses its alcohol fragrance; with your nose close to the pan, you should smell the sausage more than the wine.

Now start to add the hot broth, a half-cup at a time, stirring it in each time and waiting for each addition to be absorbed before adding more. As the rice starts to expand, you can increase the amount of broth in subsequent additions. Don't let the rice dry out at any point: It should always have a slightly creamy, soupy consistency. Keep adding broth until the rice is done; you might not need to use all that liquid. The grains will still be separate and slightly resistant to the bite but bathed in a thick, fragrant sauce.

At this point, remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the remaining radicchio. Finally, stir in the grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. Cover and let rest for about 10 minutes, then serve right away, garnishing each serving with a thin thread of oil.

Makes 8 first-course or 4 to 6 main-course servings

Nutrition, calories per serving (based on 8): 430, total fat: 16g, saturated fat: 5g, cholesterol: 20mg, sodium: 400mg, total carbohydrates: 48g, dietary fiber: 1g, sugar: 2g, protein: 14g

From cookbook author and food writer Nancy Harmon Jenkins