Whitby’s Magpie Cafe recipe of week - Baked monkfish, Olive Oil mash, mussels and nduja

Ingredients - serves 4

4 x 200g pieces Monkfish

250g pistachio nuts

2 tablespoons plain flour

800g potatoes, peeled and diced

80-100ml Extra virgin 
Olive Oil

Salt and pepper

500g fresh mussels

100g Nduja (spicy pork sausage), roughly diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 yellow pepper, diced

2-3 ahallots, finely sliced

100ml tomato passata

150ml chicken stock

Bunch parsley, chopped

Oil for cooking

Method

Place the potatoes into a pan, cover with salted water and bring to the boil.

Cook until tender, then drain off the water.

Add plenty of black pepper and most of the extra virgin oil.

Mash the potatoes and add more extra virgin olive oil to soften the mix.

Set aside and keep warm.

For the Monkfish, crush the pistachios until quite fine then mix these with the flour and some seasoning, place the pistachio mix onto some parchment and then roll each piece of monkfish through the pistachio, evenly coating each piece of fish.

Heat some oil in a large pan and carefully lay in each piece of fish.

Over a moderate heat, evenly brown the pieces of fish.

Place the fish into a pre-heated oven (gas 8, 210c) for 4-5 minutes.

While the monkfish is cooking, cook the mussels.

Heat a little oil in a deep pan, once hot add the Nduja and cook for a minute or so (the Nduja will melt slightly and the oils will escape).

Add the shallots and peppers and cook over a high heat, stirring frequently.

Add the mussels, passata and chicken stock.

Cover the pan with a tightly fitting lid and cook the mussels for 3-4 minutes or until fully opened (discard any that don’t) add the chopped parsley.

To serve, place a good spoonful of olive oil mash onto the plates, cut each piece of monkfish in half and sit these onto the mash, spoon around the mussels and mussel liquor and finish with sprigs of fresh parsley.