If you have forgotten how delicious a fillet of fish can be, do this: Steam it, with nothing. Drizzle it with olive oil and lemon. Sprinkle it with salt. Eat it. If the number of ingredients and technique are minimal, the challenge is not. You need a high-quality and uniformly thick piece of fish to begin with, your timing must be precise—which is all a matter of attention and judgment, really—and your olive oil flavorful. That taken care of, there is no better or easier preparation.

　　

Ingredients

makes 4 servings

　　1 1/2 pounds cod, red snapper, grouper, striped bass, sea bass, or halibut in 2 pieces or 1 large halibut steak

　　2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

　　Juice of 1/2 lemon

　　Coarse salt

　　

Step 1

Put at least 1 inch of water in the bottom of a steamer (see Note), cover, and bring to a boil. Put the fish on the steamer’s rack—making sure the rack is elevated above the water—cover again, and steam for 4 to 8 minutes, or until the fish is done. You must check often—taking care not to scald yourself when removing the steamer’s lid—and stop the cooking the instant a thin-bladed knife meets no resistance when poking the fillet. (A good-sized halibut fillet may require 10 or even 12 minutes.)

　　

Step 2

Transfer the fish to a warm platter and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Sprinkle with coarse salt and serve.

　　

Variation

Step 3

Simplest Steamed Fish with Soy: You can drizzle the fish with anything you like in place of the olive oil and lemon. Try, for example, a drizzle of soy sauce and a little minced peeled fresh ginger and/or chopped scallion.

　　Cooks' Note

　　To jerry-rig a steaming vessel, I use a large oval casserole with a rack that fits in it; it was designed for roasting meat. Since the rack sits only about a quarter of an inch above the bottom, though, I have to elevate it, which I do by resting it on a couple of glass ramekins. As long as you have a large rack that fits inside of a larger pot, you will figure something out.

　　From Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes From the New York Times by Mark Bittman Copyright (c) 2007 by Mark Bittman Published by Broadway Books.Mark Bittman is the author of the blockbuster Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.