Roasted Whole Branzino with Lemon and Thyme

This is a super simple and delicious (and healthy) meal with maximum presentation appeal (unless you find the sight of whole fish totally UNappealing, of course).

This was my first attempt at cooking any sort of whole fish, and I must say I’m rather impressed with myself.  These beauties were on sale from Fresh Direct, and I decided to go for it.

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400ºF.  Thoroughly rinse each fish inside and out, and pat dry.  Place the fish on a baking sheet.  Rub or brush each fish with olive oil, inside and out.  Sprinkle each fish liberally with salt and pepper (I used freshly ground sea salt and black pepper) inside and out (I just did so on the inside and the top side of each fish).  Insert sliced lemon and fresh thyme sprigs (about 3-4 and 6-8, respectively).  Roast in the oven for 30 minutes.  Remove the fish from the oven and using a metal spatula, separate fish from bottom of pan (this can be tricky – you can use parchment paper initially to avoid problems here). Then with two metal spatulas, lift the fish onto the serving tray.  Rub one pat of butter on each, then sprinkle with fresh lemon zest.  Squeeze one lemon wedge over each fish and serve.  Voila!