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This easy striped bass recipe comes together in one pan with very little work. It’s simple enough for a weeknight dinner but looks so beautiful, bursting with rainbows, that it’s great for company, too.
Why we love this recipe
I love the way our favorite striped bass recipe comes together quickly and easily without any fancy techniques, but still yields a pretty and impressive result (not to mention an open bottle of wine). Once you’ve prepped the ingredients, they mingle like magic in the oven and make:
- Perfectly cooked fish filets
- Bathed in a mellow, savory broth
- Studded with veggies and aromatics
I first published this recipe here in 2018, when Umami Girl was just about to turn 10 years old. It reminds me of Umami Girl’s early days and raison d’être. I created this recipe in honor of some perfect fresh bass caught locally by our friend Jac, and since then so many of you have made it, too.
That’s not such a far cry from our earliest recipes, created to help members of the Catalpa Ridge Farm CSA use the fruits and veggies they’d picked up from our Hoboken, NJ garage that week. Yay for all that. I can’t quite decide whether it all feels like ages ago or yesterday.
What you’ll need
Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this recipe.
- Striped bass (also sometimes called striper, rockfish, or Atlantic striped bass) is a very versatile white-fleshed fish with a mild flavor and medium-firm texture.
- Choose a white wine that you like to drink.
- You can use any chicken, vegetable, or fish broth or stock that you like.
- The tomatoes cook down to help form the sauce.
How to make it
Here’s what you’ll do to make an easy, vibrant batch of our favorite striped bass recipe. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.
- First you’ll place all the ingredients for the sauce right into the pan and give it a stir.
- Bake, covered, for 20 minutes.
- Carefully nestle the fish into the sauce. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dot with butter.
- Bake, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes more, until bass is just cooked through. Sprinkle with basil and serve.
Expert tips and FAQs
If you’re not awash in striped bass but are still looking for a great baked white fish recipe, feel free substitute cod, black sea bass, or halibut.
For a vegetarian version with similar flavors, this sauce would also make a great base for a couple of cans of white beans or chickpeas.
The only real work of this recipe is in chopping the shallots, bell pepper, and tomatoes nice and small so that they cook down into a beautiful sauce in a relatively short time. Other than that, you get to just nestle everything into a pan and let it work for you while you do your thing.
There will be plenty of delicious, saucy broth at the bottom of the pan, so we recommend serving the fish in wide, shallow bowls on top of our favorite easy orzo pasta to soak it all up. It would also pair beautifully with rice pilaf or mashed potatoes.
I prefer to make this recipe right before we sit down to eat, especially since it’s so hands-off. But if you need to, you could make it in advance, either in full or in part.
One option is to prep all the ingredients up to 24 hours in advance, store them in the fridge, and assemble and bake right before serving. Or you could bake the sauce (through step 3 in the recipe card below) up to 24 hours in advance and then add and bake the fish right before serving.
Leftovers will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for three to four days.
More favorite seafood recipes
- Slow-roasted salmon
- Butter-poached lobster
- Simple soft-shell crabs
- Shrimp scampi
- Pan-seared scallops with chorizo
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Our New Favorite Striped Bass Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 shallots, minced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced small
- 12 ounces (340 grams) mixed cherry tomatoes, halved (quarter any obnoxiously large ones)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ cup (60 grams) capers
- ½ cup (120 ml) dry white wine
- ½ cup (120 ml) low-sodium vegetable, chicken or fish stock
- A few thyme sprigs
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt, divided
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
- 4 6- to 8- ounce 200-gram striped bass fillets, skin and bones removed
- 2 tablespoons (28 grams) butter, diced
- ¼ cup julienned basil leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F with a rack in the center.
- Bake, covered, for 20 minutes.
- Pat striped bass fillets dry with paper towels.
- Carefully remove pan from oven and arrange filets in pan on top of sauce, nestling them in a bit. Sprinkle fish with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and dot with butter.
- Return pan to oven, uncovered. Bake until fish is just cooked through, about 15 to 20 minutes depending on thickness. Sprinkle with the basil.
- To serve, place about a cup of orzo into each of four wide, shallow bowls and top each with a piece of fish. Spoon some veggies and plenty of sauce overtop.
Notes
- If you’re not awash in striped bass but are still looking for a great baked white fish recipe, feel free substitute cod, black sea bass, or halibut.
- Choose a wine that you like to drink. I used Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, which is one of our longtime favorite value wines. It’s widely available.
- The only real work of this recipe is in chopping the shallots, bell pepper, and tomatoes nice and small so that they cook down into a beautiful sauce in a relatively short time. Other than that, you get to just nestle everything into a pan and let it work for you while you do your thing.
- There will be plenty of delicious, saucy broth at the bottom of the pan, so we recommend serving the fish in wide, shallow bowls on top of our favorite easy orzo to soak it all up. It would also pair beautifully with rice pilaf or mashed potatoes.
- I prefer to make this recipe right before we sit down to eat, especially since it’s so hands-off. But if you need to, you could make it in advance, either in full or in part .One option is to prep all the ingredients up to 24 hours in advance, store them in the fridge, and assemble and bake right before serving. Or you could bake the sauce (through step 3 in the recipe card below) up to 24 hours in advance and then add and bake the fish right before serving.
- Leftovers will keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for three to four days.
- For a vegetarian version with similar flavors, this sauce would also make a great base for a couple of cans of white beans or chickpeas.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hungry for more?
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This recipe is amazing. But, I caught my own striped bass and all the veggies except for the capers came from my garden. But my wife said it was the best dish she ever had!
Wonderful, Bob! I’d say that’s an “and,” not a “but.” ?
Amazing dish! I also did it on the stove b/c I didn’t want to turn on the oven w/it being so hot outside. I added fresh basel and parsley too. Substituted olive oil for the butter. All the ingredients just came together and the striper is so tender and delicious! 🙂
So glad you enjoyed it, Norah! Thank you.
Excellent recipe! Did everything as stated, but used an immersion blender before adding the fish just to blend the veggies a little more.
Delicious, I added shrimp!
Ooh, I love that idea!
Wonderful, nice and flaky fish. I did the whole recipe on the stove, covered both times.
Added an extra splash of wine when I added the fish! Great flavors!
Thank you!
So glad, Nancy. Thank you!
I substituted chicken for the fish and I added potatoes, small potatoes. It’s delicious.
Oh wow, love that! Thanks for commenting, Jim.
Fantastic and easy recipe! Very flavorful and the fish melted in our mouths! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thank you, Shelly!