Name: Pescado a la Sal
Yield: 4 Servings
Ingredients: 3 lb. kosher salt; 1 whole red snapper or sea bass (2 to 2½ lb.), gutted but not scaled; 2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil; 1 tbsp. sherry vinegar; Flaky sea salt

If you’ve never baked a fish in salt, prepare to change the way you cook. This is such a simple technique to get the moistest, juiciest, and healthiest fish. Think of the fish, cozy inside its salty home, steaming in its own juices as it gently warms up in the oven—this is the happiest fish in the world! Be sure to keep the scales on the fish, though; they protect it from becoming too salty. And you can really use any fish you like all along the Mediterranean coast; you’ll find families cooking lubina, Mediterranean sea bass, but you could also do red snapper, or another firm-fleshed white fish. —José Andrés, Spain My Way: Eat, Drink, and Cook Like a Spaniard

Read our Q&A with Andrés, and get the recipe for his mussels cooked with garlic and white wine.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400°F and set a rack in the center.

Combine the salt with ½ cup of water in a large bowl and mix, using a spatula or your hands, until the salt is slightly damp. Spread half of the salt mixture in the center of a baking sheet to make a bed, pressing down on it to pack the salt, then place the sea bass on top. Cover the fish completely with the remaining salt mixture, making sure to pack it firmly around the fish to seal it.

Bake for 30 minutes (or until a thermometer inserted into the center of the fish reaches 135°F), then remove the fish from the oven and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Using two spoons, crack open the side of the salt crust and remove the top shell of salt. Brush away any remaining salt from the top of the fish. Make a cut just below the head and along the back, then gently peel away the skin from the top of the fish. Using a fish spatula, carefully lift off the top fillet and place on a serving platter. Turn the fish over and repeat on the other side. Discard the salt crust and reserve the fish head and bones for stock.

To serve, drizzle the fillets with olive oil and a sprinkle of sherry vinegar, and season with flaky sea salt.

Tip: If you have any fish left at the end of dinner, it will remain moist the next day, covered in the fridge or even just left in its crust overnight. What I love to do in the summertime is to make a simple tomato salad and top it with the leftover fish—a perfect lunch with a little bread and a glass of white wine. Be sure to save the head and bones to make a broth.

From Spain My Way: Eat, Drink, and Cook Like a Spaniard by José Andrés with Sam Chapple-Sokol. Copyright © 2026 by José Andrés. Excerpted by permission of Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Pescado a la Sal

Ingredients

Preparation

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