Poached Ling with Tomato and Fennel

Ling does not get talked about much and it should. It is firm, it is boneless, it holds its shape in liquid instead of shredding, and it is usually one of the better-value fillets in the cabinet. If a recipe asks you to poach or braise a white fish, ling is the one to ask us for.

This is the sort of dinner that looks like it took effort and didn't. One pan, twenty-five minutes, mostly unattended, and it comes in near 215 calories a serve.

What you need

• 600 g ling fillets, cut into large pieces
• 1 fennel bulb, halved and sliced thin (keep the fronds)
• 1 brown onion, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, sliced
• 400 g tin whole peeled tomatoes, crushed by hand
• 200 ml fish or chicken stock
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• A strip of lemon peel
• Flat-leaf parsley, salt, pepper

Cut the fillets into pieces about the size of your palm rather than leaving them whole. They cook evenly, and you can lift them out without them breaking.

How to cook it

1. Soften the fennel and onion. Oil in a wide pan on medium, fennel and onion in with a pinch of salt. Ten minutes, stirring now and then. Take your time here — this is where the sweetness comes from.
2. Garlic for one minute, then the tomatoes, the stock and the lemon peel.
3. Simmer ten minutes uncovered, so it thickens slightly and stops tasting of tin.
4. Fish in, heat down. Nestle the pieces into the sauce so they are about two-thirds submerged. Lid on, lowest heat.
5. Six to eight minutes depending on thickness. The liquid should barely move — if it is bubbling hard, it is too hot and the fish will toughen.
6. Off the heat, lid on, two minutes. Then parsley, fennel fronds, pepper, and a little more olive oil if you like.

Making it work for you

Family version: stir through 200 g of small pasta at the sauce stage with a little more stock. Adds roughly 180 calories and 36 g of carbohydrate a serve, and it feeds six.

Cutting again: skip the oil and start the vegetables in a splash of stock. That takes it to about 185 calories.

Leftovers: better the next day, and it freezes. Freeze the sauce without the fish if you can — poached fish goes soft after a freeze.

No ling today? Flathead fillets are the closest swap and just as lean.