When dealing with lentils: 1. Forget about lame veggy slop served in crap West End organic cafes (Planet Organic – WTF?); 2. Ignore the dumb cooking instructions on the packet – lentils cooked for less than 30 minutes are little more than misery inducing soul destroying tooth cracking shrapnel.
Lentils are only very good when they are still formed but creamy to taste. This will take around 45 minutes – but you have to keep an eye on them. All lentils are different.
The base for these lentils is everything – and you will not cook lentils any other way once you have done this – create a fine soffritto from 1 carrot, 1 celery stalk, 1 leek and one white onion. Sweat down with 30gms of pancetta (whole or chopped – you can remove it if whole – I prefer chopped).
Trancio di merluzzo con lenticchie
Sweating should take 8-10minutes to bring out the sweetness from the soffrito. Add 250gms of green lentils (soaked for 30 mins prior) and stir through. Leave in the pan for 10 mins on medium heat until the lentils start to stick to the base. Add a couple of rosemary stalks and a few sage and bay leaves. Cover with vegetable stock to and stew for a further 30 minutes at least. Don’t season.
You can make a parsley vinaigrette. Take two handfuls of parsley, and blitz with some olive oil and a tablespoon of vinegar. This will cut through the richness of the lentils.
Once the lentils are done – stock should be reduced and lentils creamy and savory. Check the seasoning, and stir in some soft butter – much like you would do with a risotto.
Season your cod and crisp the skin in a nonstick pan with olive and vegetable oil. Roughly 3 mins on each side is enough depending on the thickness of the fillet. To finish, throw some butter and chopped parsley into the pan, melt and spoon over the fillets. Plate and serve.
A bit of dinner 