En papillote’ is a culinary French term that describes a method of cooking food wrapped in a packet of parchment paper to preserve its moisture and flavor. It’s the same as the Italian ‘al cartoccio” and it’s mainly used with fish.
While the ingredients inside the paper wrap may vary, the result is always very tasty and choreographic. In my experience, the simpler you keep the recipe, the better the result: the enclosed environment will exalt all the flavors and blend them into each other.
Ingredients:
(Serves 2) A B Gf Df
- 2 halibut fillets, about 6 oz. each
- 16 green olives (like picholine)
- 3-4 Tablespoons of EVOO
- 1 tsp. of green pepper berries
- Sea salt to taste
- A few leaves of basil
- A few sprigs of parsley
- A few leaves of lemon thyme
Preheat the oven at 400 F.
Cover a baking pan with a big piece of parchment paper, approx. 3 feet long. You must have enough paper to close it loosely around the halibut.
Remove the pits from the olives.
Grease the center part of the parchment paper with oil, lay the halibut on it, scatter olives, capers and herbs on the halibut fillets, and add the remaining oil.
Grind some sea salt on the fish and close the paper loosely around the halibut, but tightly at the seams so that the heat cannot escape while the fish is cooking.
Bake for 20 minutes. Carefully open the paper, starting from the top, to let the steam inside the wrap evaporate for a few seconds before plating.
You can also wrap the fillets individually and place each open wrap directly on the serving plate.