Hake steaks sitting in a loose, vividly green sauce of parsley, garlic and the juices of the fish, loosened with wine and a spoon of flour — that is what you want. The fish should be just opaque. Peas scattered through. The sauce is not a paste.
Merluza is the fish of the Cantabrian ports, and salsa verde is how San Sebastián and the surrounding coast treat it. Peas are not a garnish; they belong.
Swirl the pan rather than turn the fish. Serve in the cazuela. Txakoli, or a Rías Baixas Albariño. Bread, again, for what the spoon leaves. Don't be heavy-handed with the flour.
Method
- 01
Season the hake steaks with salt. Warm the oil in a cazuela and gently gold the sliced garlic — pale gold, not brown. Stir in the flour and cook 30 seconds, just until it smells toasty. This spoon of flour is all the thickening the sauce will get, so cook it enough to lose the raw taste.
- 02
Splash in the wine, then the stock, stirring until the sauce is smooth and free of lumps. Fold in most of the chopped parsley; save a handful for the end, when you want that fresh green. The sauce should already be loose and vividly colored. That's salsa verde: parsley, garlic, and the juices of the fish.
- 03
Nestle the steaks into the sauce and scatter the peas over and around them. Simmer gently, swirling the pan rather than turning the fish — hake is fragile, and a spatula will break it. Cook until the steaks are just opaque at the bone, 8 to 10 minutes. The peas belong in the sauce; they're not a garnish.
- 04
Finish with the remaining parsley, stirring it through so the sauce goes vividly green. It should be loose, never a paste — if it's tight, loosen it with a spoon of stock. Serve in the cazuela, the steaks sitting in that parsley broth. Bread, again, for what the spoon leaves behind — that's the Basque way, the sauce being half the dish.
