Christmas Eve Recap/Baked Orange Roughy, Italian Style

Happy New Year and welcome to 2010! I thought it would be appropriate to start of the new year of posts with a nice little recap of my favorite end-of-year dinner, the Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes.

My family has been celebrating this tradition for as long as I could remember, and of course many years before that. While we still stick with many of the traditional dishes (baccalá soup, whitefish, smelts, stuffed calamari, fried shrimp), we have been slowly introducing some more modern dishes to the line-up. My brother and his wife are always good for a wild card dish, and this year they didn't disappoint with pan-seared scallops. Unbelievable!

I'm usually the one responsible for crab cakes, but this year we went with Bobby Chez crab cakes (very good, by the way!). Instead, I was given orange roughy duty. If you're not familiar with orange roughy, it's a very flaky fish, similar to tilapia or flounder. It's got a very mild taste, so it's a good dish for those who aren't into a real 'fishy' dish. I did some research and found a recipe for 'Baked Orange Roughy, Italian Style' at allrecipes.com. It makes a nice, flavorful parmesan-garlic based coating. I decided to give it a try and I'm happy to say it was a home run! Everyone enjoyed it and I've already been given the honors for next year as well. The recipe is very simple (it will also work very well with flounder and tilapia), and I liked the fact that the recipe calls for the fish to be baked instead of fried (believe me, the deep fryer was in high gear for most of the other dishes that night).

Below is the recipe for 4 servings, but be sure to check the original link if you want to adjust the serving sizes/measurements.

BAKED ORANGE ROUGHY, ITALIAN STYLE

1/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons grated Romano cheese
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 pound orange roughy fillets
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Coat a medium baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.
In a shallow bowl, mix bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese, garlic powder, and salt.
Brush both sides of orange roughy fillets with butter, and dredge in the bread crumb mixture. Arrange fillets in a single layer in the prepared baking dish, and sprinkle with parsley.
Bake in preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.