Seafood Saganaki

When my mother says, “She’s cute,” it’s a compliment, but it doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it means.

Generally, “She’s cute,” when uttered by my mother, doesn’t mean that the person in question is particularly good-looking, but more something along the lines of, “She’s got potential,” i.e. “She probably shouldn’t be wearing those pants, but someday, when she figures out how to dress for her hips, how to deal with thick hair and how to wear mascara, she’ll be gorgeous.”

I’ll admit it: it’s a comment that really used to bug me. In middle school, you know who the “hot” girls are, and yet my mother was always singling out the sort of mousy girls, the ones who, like me, had really thick hair they didn’t know what to do with, might have a few extra pounds on their frames and probably didn’t wear makeup yet. I thought that she was being deliberately obtuse, ignoring the blonde girls with the “Rachel” or the ones with silver Tiffany’s heart bracelets dangling from their wrists. “She’s cute,” my mother would say, pointing to one of the smart girls, and I would roll my eyes, thinking that she was trying some sort of reverse-psychology on her smart, glasses-wearing, chunky, short, frizzy-haired daughter.

I underestimated my mother.

I don’t see most of the girls from my middle school anymore; I left for high school, and abandoning ship at 14 allows you to weed the chaff from the wheat pretty easily. Still, thanks to social media (*cough* Facebook *cough*), I’ve been able to check out some of those “cute” girls, the ones my mother said would be pretty as I rolled my eyes and hid behind a paperback. When will I finally understand, once and for all, that my mother is always right?

All this to say, this Seafood Saganaki is, for all intents and purposes, the “cute” girl. It might not strike you right off the bat as gorgeous. It’s not a rosy-hued roast filet mignon or a perfectly burnished roast chicken. It’s a little plain looking and not all that impressive on the plate. But give it a chance… with a little bit of crusty bread to mop up all the sauce, you’ll understand in no time what it took me all these years to figure out.

There’s all sorts of clichés so overused expressing this same sentiment that it makes me queasy just to type them, but for any mousy, frizzy, glasses-wearing middle schoolers out there, believe me: it gets better. And for those of you who weren’t quite convinced by the picture, take a leap of faith and give the “cute girl” (in this case, seafood baked with tomato sauce, oregano and feta cheese) a shot.

Seafood Saganaki

Tomato Sauce (feel free to start with your own marinara sauce, if you have some lying around)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp. salt
1 28 oz. can tomatoes

1 tbsp. Greek oregano

Saganaki (I use frozen fish–I live inland–but feel free to use the fresh stuff if you have access!)
2 frozen cod fillets
200 g. frozen seafood (I use a mix of small shrimp, mussels and calamari rings)
50 g. feta cheese

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and salt and cook, stirring, until translucent and lightly browned.

Add the can of tomatoes and stir. Cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Use an immersion blender, break up the larger chunks of tomato. Reserve half the sauce for another use, and add the oregano to the half you’re using.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and defrost the fish and seafood in warm water, if using frozen. If using fresh, rinse the seafood. Cut the cod into bite-sized chunks.

Toss the seafood and sauce in a Pyrex baking dish. Top with feta cheese.

Bake, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes, until the seafood is cooked. Serve with crusty bread.