Rick Stein's John Dory alla Carlina

Fresh from his travels from Venice to Istanbul, legendary chef Rick Stein is in the kitchen to cook a delicious John Dory alla Carlina - a Venetian dish from his favourite restaurant of all time, which he first tried on the island of Torcello.

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the tomato sauce: makes about 600ml

6 tbsp olive oil20g/4 cloves garlic, finely chopped1 kg well-flavoured tomatoes, peeled, or 2 x 400g tinned tomatoessalt and freshly ground black pepper

4 john Dory fish filletsSalt and freshly ground black pepper50g plain flour2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to serve1 lemon halved1 tsp Worcestershire sauce2 small gherkins, finely chopped2 tbsp capers; 1 tbsp finely chopped, 1 tbsp whole2 tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and finely chopped3 tbsp tomato sauce250ml fish stockSmall handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Method

For the tomato sauce, heat the olive oil and garlic in a saucepan. As soon as the garlic starts to sizzle, add the tomatoes and simmer for 15-20 minutes, breaking them up with a wooden spoon as they cook. Cook until the sauce has thickened, then season with salt and pepper. The sauce is ready to use. If not using immediately, leave to cool, then refrigerate for up to a week or freeze for later use.

Season the John Dory fillets with some salt and pepper and lightly dust with flour. Hat the olive oil in a frying pan, add the fillets skin-side down and fry for 2-3 minutes until lightly browned then season with a squeeze of lemon juice, turn the fish over and cook for a further minute. Remove from the pan and keep warm.

Add the Worcestershire sauce, gherkins, whole and chopped capers, tomatoes, tomato sauce and fish stock to the pan, bring o the boil then reduce a little to create the sauce. Add the fish carefully back to the pan for a minute to warm through in the sauce.

Serve immediately, drizzled with a little more olive oil and sprinkled with fresh parsley.

Recipe from Rick Stein's new book: From Venice to Istanbul, BBC books £25