Baked Eel Salonika

Salonika, now Thessaloniki, sits on the northern edge of Greek cuisine, a port city with a long tradition of cooking seafood in ways that aren’t flashy but are deeply satisfying. This eel preparation is one of those dishes.

Boned and skinned eel goes into an oiled pan, then gets covered in a sauce built from four sliced onions softened in olive oil with garlic, tomatoes, red wine, parsley, oregano, and a whisper of cinnamon. The whole thing bakes low and slow for 45 minutes until the eel is cooked through and has absorbed the wine-tomato sauce.

That cinnamon is easy to miss at just ⅛ teaspoon, but it’s doing real work. A classic Greek technique in savory tomato sauces, it adds a warmth that makes the sauce feel more complex without reading as “spiced."

Eel has a rich, slightly fatty texture that holds up to long baking far better than most fish. It takes on the flavors around it readily. Serve with plenty of crusty bread to soak up the sauce.

Kitchen Tips

• Source cleaned eel: Ask your fishmonger to bone and skin it. Handling raw whole eel is not beginner territory.
• Don’t skip the wine: Red wine is structural here. It adds body to the tomato sauce and helps it thicken as it bakes.
• Sauce goes over, not under: Pouring the cooked sauce over the eel before baking lets the flavors penetrate from the top down.
• Crusty bread is not optional: The sauce is too good to leave in the pan.

Variations

• White wine version: Substitute dry white wine for red for a lighter, brighter sauce that still works with the fish.
• Firm white fish substitute: If eel is unavailable, thick cuts of monkfish or halibut can take this preparation.