“Bistro Cooking” with Patricia Wells – Swordfish with Piperade!
I took part in a cookbook review series and made this dish, which is so good I made it again!
I have many cookbooks from Writer / Chef Patricia Wells. Her focus on Parisian and Provencal cooking is a terrific way to taste the flavors of France.
Bistro food can sometimes be heavier, like this provencal frog legs dish…delicious, but not easy to find the ingredients.
Instead, I went for a terrific recipe with tuna and a classic sauce made from fresh vegetables.This dish is light, fresh and very flavorful as well!
“Thon a L’Ail Arrantzaleak, Sauce Piperade” is grilled Tuna in a piperade sauce – and of course, the day I had scheduled to prepare it there was no fresh tuna available!
However, no worry as swordfish was a perfect substitute. Let’s get cooking!
Ingredients for the main course:
I lb tuna steak – or swordfish!
Peanut or olive oil
Black pepper
20 large garlic cloves
I tbl. Red wine vinegar
For the Sauce Piperade:
2 small, mildly hot green chiles
6 tbl. Extra-virgin olive oil
2 lbs. Tomatoes, peeled, cored, seeded and chopped
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
3 large bell pepper, cored, halved, seed and cut lengthwise into thin slices
3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
First, let’s make the Piperade:
Cut the tops of the chiles, slice in half lengthwise and remove all seeds – then cut chiles into very thin strips
In a large skillet, heat 2 tbl. of the oil over medium heat, add tomatoes and simmer uncovered for ten minutes
In a medium skillet, heat 2 tbl of oil then add the onions and cook until light golden, about 10 minutes
In another medium skillet, heat 2 tbl. of the oil and cook the chiles and bell peppers until soft and tender, about 10 minutes…yes, I had three pans going at once – take a look!
This was actually fun – do you really need to cook them separately? I always listen to the Chef!
Add the onions and peppers to the tomato mix…stir in the raw minced garlic and season with salt and pepper…cook uncovered over low heat for one hour, stirring occasionally…it looks beautiful when done…
This Piperade can be taken off the heat as you prepare the Tuna / Swordfish
Lightly brush both sides of your fish with olive oil, and season generously with pepper
Broil on a grill (or you can pan sear as I did) until fish begins to turn opaque, about five minutes per side
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat 2 tbl. of oil then add garlic and stir them so they are coated with the oil, then saute until light golden, about 4-5 minutes
This smells as good as it looks:
Add the red wine vinegar to deglaze the pan.
Sprinkle the tuna /swordfish with salt, put on a warmed platter and pour the garlic sauce over the fish
You finish the dish by adding the Piperade to the top of the fish or serve it on the side…I served my fish on top of fettucine, as the garlic sauce worked well on it!
This was delicious, the garlic sauce giving a richness to the dish – and the piperade is zesty with a slight spicy bite to it – and the leftover can be used for any kind of meat or fish as well. The entire cookbook is filled with classic French dishes that are fun and mostly easy to prepare – the also present very well for guests!
As I said, I was lucky to attend a week of cooking adventures with my wife Alex – held at the Provencal home of Patricia Wells and her husband Walter. That’s her showing me how to toss a salad, while fellow attendee Wendy diced up herbs…I just mugged to the camera! Oh, and about the apron: I mis-read their request for the name on it and gave them my whole name!
Alex harvested fresh eggplant from Patricia’s garden!
It was a memorable week, exploring the flavors of the south of France – joining ten other cooks to make fun lunches and dinners for a week in the south of France!
I also had the great fortune to cook on a stove owned by Julia Child – which she gave to Wells!
You can see our entire Provencal cooking adventure with Patric but clicking here:
Another fun and delicious recipe from Wells was this classic Provencal Pan Bagnat – click here for the origin story and recipe!
Another great Provencal dish is “fish in crazy water!”
It’s light and refreshing – click on my story for the recipe and why they call it “crazy water!”
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Categories: Bite Eat Swallow, Bite! Eat! Repeat!, Chef memoirs, Cookbooks, Eat This!, Fine Dining, Food, Food Travel, Recipes, Travel, Wacky Food, World's Wildest Food
Bite! Eat! Repeat! 
I love this cookbook, and I think I’d love this dish too!
my husband would love this dish. Thanks, John
It is terrific, Alex loves it!
I love all of the books of hers I have, except for Vegetable Harvest. I’ve not heard of any recent publications. This recipe is fantastic. The vinegar is an interesting addition to the sautéing garlic cloves! Do you own Trattoria by Ms Wells? It’s the Italian version of Bistro.
I dont own that! We saw Patricia and her husband last summer in Provence…they are wonderful and doing well but not sure she is doing any additional books – she didn’t mention any
looks delish!
This looks so good! That piperade sauce would be perfect with lots of things. Mom used to make something similar that she called pepper hash. I still recall how good it was.
Yes good for everything indeed! Thanks for the note!
I often used to order swordfish steak in London restaurants. Now I want to have some again!
Best wishes, Pete.
It’s become our second favorite dish to make…Alex still loves a piece of seared salmon with cauliflower rice…we have both dishes every week
This looks really tasty. It is hard to get swordfish here, but I have had it on my travels and it is nice!
The best thing about this Piperade is that it works on almost everything, from fish to chicken and even pork!
At the moment, fish is the easiest to eat. So there will be a lot of salmon, cod and other fish!