A friend of mine recently returned home after a long arduous journey. I offered to make her a welcome-home dinner and we settled on a menu of baked cod and mashed potatoes. We considered this recipe for Baked Cod With Lemon and Garlic, which looks delicious, but we wanted something with tomatoes too, so we saved that recipe for later and opted for this one, Mediterranean Baked Cod from Savory Nothings.

I ordered some cod from my local fishmonger, Star Fish Market in Guilford. And I had most of the other ingredients in my pantry, or reasonable substitutions. I did not have black olives but Star Fish Market had some beautiful Calamata olives, so I got those. We were going to have four people in total for dinner so I ordered two pounds of cod, which would give us plenty and some for leftovers as well.

I skipped cutting the cherry tomatoes in half. It seemed like too much work. And I subbed Herbes de Provence for the Italian seasoning. And, I realize now that I skipped the part about adding butter at the end. I just forgot! I do think that would have made it even more delicious, but even without the butter it was fabulous and made for a beautiful presentation too.

I made some mashed potatoes to go with it, and was able to pack the whole thing up to take down the avenue to my friend, her husband, and her sister, who were joining us for dinner. To transport it, I put a kitchen towel on a cutting board, put the fish dish (a shallow oblong baking dish) on the kitchen towel, covered the fish with tin foil, then put a sheet pan on top of that, and then the potatoes on top of the sheet pan, which had a sil pat on it, which kept the potatoes from slipping. It was still warm and ready to serve when I arrived at my friend’s house.

I think the thing I was most proud of was timing everything correctly, packing it up, and delivering it while it was still hot. It helped that my friend lived right down the street. If you had further to drive you could definitely warm everything back up once you got there, but you’d have to be careful not to overcook the fish.

The four of us polished off all of the cod, but I did save a bit and had that for breakfast the next morning. So I’d say two pounds of cod for four people was just about right.

Also, I wanted to say goodbye! This is my last Food Court column. I will be leaving the newspaper on Nov. 1. It has been such a pleasure and honor to share breakfast, lunch, and dinner with all of you for all of these years. I will continue to write about food and if you’d like to learn more about that, you are welcome to email me at pemmymac@gmail.com.

Here is the fish recipe, with the adjustments I made.

Mediterranean Baked Cod

Adapted from a Recipe From Savory Nothings

Ingredients:

2 pounds cod fillet

½ red onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic crushed and sliced

1 ½ pound cherry tomatoes

¼ cup pitted and sliced Calamata olives

1- 2 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon Herbes de Provence seasoning

salt & pepper to taste

½ cup white wine (or water)

4 tablespoons butter chopped

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a rectangular baking dish that will comfortably hold all of the fish and other ingredients.

Scatter the onion, garlic, tomatoes and olives in the pan, and then put fish on top.

Drizzle the olive oil all over the ingredients in the dish. Sprinkle with HDP and season with salt and pepper.

Pour the wine or water into the dish. Scatter the butter evenly over the dish. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the tomatoes and fish are cooked.