Tilapia With Roasted Tomatoes, Capers, & Olives

I’ve been working very hard to eat healthier the past year and one way I am doing this is to increase my intake of vegetables, to limit red meat, and to focus more on getting our protein requirements from seafood and poultry. Eating seafood often can get expensive though, unless you are lucky enough to have fresh, locally caught fish in your area.

When we are in Florida, tilapia is a light tasting, inexpensive fish that we buy often and because of it’s mild flavor it can be used in many recipes. We have been buying a large package of tilapia in bulk at Costco, and I simply divide it up at home and freeze in meal size servings. I was calculating the cost of this tilapia, and we are able to enjoy a good sized tilapia fillet each for under $2 a portion by buying it this way. Certainly not expensive for seafood! If you do not have tilapia in your area, any mild white fish fillets would do such as flounder or snapper.

I have found that the best way to cook these fillets so they do not dry out is to either bread them and quickly pan fry them, or bake them as I do in this recipe in a sauce of roasted tomatoes. This has quickly become our latest favorite seafood recipe that we have been making once a week since the new year began because it is flavorful, moist, and along with some roasted vegetables makes a perfect quick mid-week dinner. This dish is what Italian home cooking is all about…..fresh local ingredients cooked simply, to truly enjoy the natural flavors of the food.

• Tomatoes are rich in Lycopene, vitamin C, potassium, iron, and fiber.
• As well as being an excellent source of low fat protein, white fish is also rich in vitamins and minerals. White fish is rich in a number of B vitamins such as niacin (B3), which is needed to promote healthy cells and to help eliminate toxins from the body and pyridoxine (B6), which keeps the skin, nervous system and red blood cells healthy. White fish is also rich in several essential minerals such as iron, phosphorous, selenium and iodine.
• Although they are considered a high fat food, olives are unusual in their fat quality, because they provide almost three-quarters of their fat as oleic acid, which is a mono-unsaturated fatty acid. The high monounsaturated fat content of olives has been associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.