Tilapia Piccata Pasta

You will never hear me say no to eating anything with lemon in it. When I learned that piccata was where you take a choice of meat and serve it in lemon and butter sauce, I was ALL IN. Normally you may think of chicken piccata, or at least that is all I knew. But I don't cook much chicken at home and I am always finding new ways to make fish, so swapping out the chicken for tilapia was brilliant. I am so happy with how this dish turned out. The browned tilapia turned out perfectly crisp and the lemon butter sauce had the perfect amount of lemon. Then by adding garlic and shallots to the mix, I was head over heels. I normally go for a creamy sauce, so this was nice to have a lighter sauce to coat my pasta. I hope y'all enjoy as much as I did!

Tilapia Piccata

Prep + Cook Time: 5 + 15 min. Feeds: 2 people

Ingredients

8 ounces (or desired amount) of bowtie pasta

2 tilapia fillets

¼ cup all-purpose flour for dredging

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 tbsp olive or canola oil

2 tbsp unsalted butter

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 large or 2 small shallots, thinly sliced

2 lemons (one for juicing + one for lemon wheels)

1 cup low sodium chicken broth or stock

1 tablespoon capers, drained and rinsed

Chopped fresh parsley for serving, optional

Directions

1. Boil a pot of generously salted water. When your water has reached a rapid boil, pour in pasta and cook until al dente - about 8 minutes. Drain when done and return to pot. Drizzle oil and toss so they do not stick to each other or the pot. Keep warm until tilapia and sauce are finished.

2. While pasta boils, begin making your tilapia piccata. Start by combining flour, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl.

3. Pat both sides of the tilapia dry and then dredge in flour mixture, shaking off any excess flour.

4. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add olive oil and butter. Add dredged fish to pan and brown about 4 minutes per side.

5. Meanwhile, thinly slice one lemon into 3-4 wheels, seeds removed (this is important, you DO NOT want seeds to end up in your pasta). Then with the remaining lemon or using the other lemon, you need 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice.

6. Once the fish has browned on both sides, transfer to a clean plate.

7. Turn heat down to medium. Add the garlic, shallots and lemon slices. Sauté for about a minute, until the shallots start to soften and become fragrant.

8. Increase the heat and add chicken stock, lemon juice and capers. Simmer until reduced by about half. If you want, you can add a small knob of butter to finish off your sauce.

9. Taste the sauce to see if you need to add more salt, pepper and/or lemon juice. Return tilapia to skillet, simmer, spooning sauce over fish until warmed through.

10. Add pasta to a shallow bowl. Lay tilapia on top of the pasta and spoon desired amount of sauce atop fish and pasta.

11. Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley and serve immediately.