I thought up this dish last night when thinking about a different fish dish I made a long time ago (when I was a sophomore in college, actually. I didn’t usually cook fish, or much else, that year in college, but this was an exception).  That time, I baked some white fish in the oven with really thin slices of tomato and parmesan cheese on them and they turned out great. This is an adaptation of that recipe, changed so I didn’t have to turn on the oven (it started to get hot in Denver.)  This would work with a lot of kinds of fish, I chose tilapia because I didn’t want to spend much $, and you can’t beat tilapia for a cheap but still tasty fish.  Snapper or trout would be good too.

Pecorino Tilapia

Step 1: Get two nicely sized fish fillets and sprinkle them lightly with some pepper. If you don’t want to use fresh garlic in the recipe, then add some garlic powder to the fish.

Step 2: Heat about 4 tbsp. of olive oil over medium heat in a non-stick pan. When hot, sautee some corsely chopped garlic in the oil. When the garlic is light brown, remove it from the oil, then put in the fish fillets.  Cook them on one side without moving them for a few minutes until a nice brown color appears on the underside.  Then carefully flip them over, and cook for another minute or two.

Step 3: When the fish has begun to cook through, place some very thinly sliced pecorino cheese on top of the fillets. Add some torn or chopped basil to the pan.  Continue cooking the fish until it is done but not dry.  By this point the basil should have wilted, and the cheese should have melted into the top layer of the fish.  The fish should be opaque and flaky, but shouldn’t flake too easily.

Step 4: Remove the fish to a serving plate or dish and enjoy! I served it with some baked broccoli (recipe/idea courtesy of Erin) and rice.