Baked Cod – Italian Style One Pan Recipe

This oven Baked Cod  is an easy, complete meal, packed with Italian flavours. Crispy pancetta bacon wraps the fish and tomatoes add a juicy sauce. All in one pan!

Oh hello baking tray full of yummy colours of summer.

I’m as all over the one pan meals as ever, but this, this Baked Cod recipe especially just makes me want to dive right in. 

Crispy, salty, browned bacon, with soft cod inside – CHECK.
Crunchy, tasty, roasted potatoes – CHECK.
Juicy, flavourful tomatoes – CHECK.

Whether you’re on the whole more fish/less meat bandwagon (like meeeee) please give this recipe a try. It’s totally delicious, even for fish sceptics.

✅ Complete meal in one pan. No standing by the stove.

✅ Light, flavourful, perfect for summer days.

✅ An easy way to eat more fish.

Frequently asked fishy questions:

I’m so bad at cooking fish though? I think lots of people have been scared of cooking fish because they have tried to pan fry it and it call stick/fall apart. This dish solves that issue – hurrah.

I always overcook fish – I think it’s MUCH harder to overcook when wrapped in something.. Enter pancetta (or bacon) solving every problem in life from now until forever.

My children will not eat fish – Again, as it’s wrapped in bacon, children seem to be more keen on fish like this than naked somehow? It adds a texture and flavour which they enjoy.

Still really not sure about the whole fish business.. – If you’re going to try cooking fish at home, oven baked cod loin is one of the easiest ways to try. Wrapped up and served as a complete meal it’s so tasty/delicious/easy/healthy. This could convert the most fish sceptic home cook (I hope!).

How to make the Baked Cod recipe:

Pop all of your veggie ingredients (apart from the olives) onto a baking tray, add oil, herbs and salt and pepper and use clean hands to mix and coat everything well.

TOP TIP: If you like really soft and squishy, juicy tomatoes add them at this stage. If you’d prefer them firmer, and less like a sauce, add them when you add the fish later.

Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes until just starting to soften and go brown.

TOP TIP: Do make sure that your potatoes are ALMOST cooked before adding the fish. If not, give them a few more minutes. The cooking time will depend on the size of the potato chunks and you don’t want to overcook the fish later so make sure they are nearly cooked now.

Add your olives and cod loins, wrapped in pancetta and bake for another 15 minutes.

What I used to make this Baked Cod recipe:

Cod – I like to use cod loins for this, they are the thick part so really nice and chunky. If you use a thinner cut, they may cook more quickly. Adjust the cooking time accordingly.

Pancetta – Smokey pancetta (an Italian ham/bacon) gives lots of flavour here. You can substitute for any thin cut smokey bacon if you prefer, streaky works well too. Thick cut bacon may not cook quickly enough to be done in the time it takes to cook the fish.

Potatoes – New potatoes work well for ease in this recipe as you can leave the skins on and just halve them. Regular potatoes cut into small chunks are fine too. Obviously the cooking time will depend on the size of the potato chunks. 

Tomatoes – I used cherry tomatoes on the vine, just because they look so pretty. Halved regular tomatoes would be fine too.

Peppers – The sweetness of red, orange or yellow peppers work best in this recipe.

Onions – You can use red onions or brown/white onions for this.

Garlic – There are whole cloves of garlic in this dish, as they roast in their skins they become soft and delicious. Don’t try and crush the garlic and mix in before cooking as the little pieces will burn.

When serving this to children, I just remove the roasted garlic from the skins and squish into the saucy juice.

Italian Herb Seasoning – A good quality dried herb mix here is fine, or dried oregano if you have that.

Olive oil – Use regular olive oil, not extra virgin. It will burn and it’s wasted on cooking.

Olives – Any favourite olives will work here. I use the black, tinned brined ones for this as they give a strong flavour and are easy to keep in the store cupboard.

Notes and Tips on the Baked Cod recipe:

• Be sure not to over cook the fish. If any white residue is starting to come out of the fish, this means it is overcooking, whip it out of the oven straight away.
• If the bacon/pancetta isn’t crispy enough but the fish is cooked, pop it under a very hot grill for a couple of minutes to brown (or blast it with a kitchen blow torch if you have one!).
• This recipe is Slimming World friendly if you’re following that plan, as it’s packed with super speedy food. You’ll need to count ‘syns’ for the pancetta (or use bacon without fat), omit the oil and count ‘syns’ for the olives.

Fancy some other easy fish recipes?

• Baked Salmon One Pan – Another easy one pan meal, this time with salmon.
• Homemade Fish Fingers – Always a winner!
• Sweet Potato Fish Pie – One of my most popular recipes ever on the blog, pinned 30,000 times.
• Fish Stew Recipe – Fresh, zesty and so tasty.
• Smoked Haddock Risotto – One of my all time favourite fish comfort foods (made easy peasy)

Hope you enjoy this recipe. I’d love to know how you got on and what you thought of it if you make this.

Please rate the recipe using the ⭐️ below!

Also, if you fancy showing me a photo by tagging me on Instagram (@tamingtwins) I LOVE to see your creations and try and share as many of them as I can.

Note: This recipe was first published on August 8th, 2016. It was updated, with new photos and some tweaks to the recipe to make it easier on 31st July 2019.

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