Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

Fish has never been my cup of tea.  I don't like an overly fishy flavor, and I had a scale experience a few years back when I ate a cheap fish patty (what can I say, there was free lunch at work).  Since then, I've really only had fish a few times and have stuck with poultry, beef, or the occasional shrimp.  All this cooking has me feeling more adventurous, and a recent trip to Red Lobster resulted in me trying some lobster pizza, seafood stuffed mushrooms, and parmesan tilapia.  And would you believe it, I loved it all!



I knew I had to do some seafood cooking on my own, and since I really liked the tilapia, I decided to start there.

I found a Parmesan Crusted Tilapia recipe to follow because although I knew I could just season the fish, I had pretty much no idea how long to bake it for.

I started out by mixing grated Parmesan, salt, pepper, and paprika together on a plate.



I used my olive oil sprayer to lightly coat both sides of the tilapia fillets.



I coated both sides of the fish by dipping it in the Parmesan mixture the laid it on a foil-lined pan.  I sprinkled the remaining cheese and seasoning over the top.  Then I baked the tilapia for 12 minutes.

It was easy to tell that the fish was finished--it was flaking apart really easily.  I served it with some brown rice for a light dinner.



I am sold on tilapia!  It was so light and the parmesan crust was awesome.  One thing I really loved about this recipe was the use of olive oil to get the cheese to stick rather than egg.  Sure this was cheese and not bread crumbs, but I plan on using that technique again in other recipes.  My husband said my version was better than the fish he had at Red Lobster!  I got filled up pretty fast and he ate half of my plate on top of his, so I knew I had a hit.  The recipe was so easy it was ridiculous, and took less time to cool than chicken.  I'm glad graduated to seafood and can't wait to try more!

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia Recipe

Ingredients:

2 tilapia fillets
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon parsley
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix grated Parmesan, salt, pepper, and paprika together on a plate. Drizzle both sides of tilapia fillets with olive oil, then coat in bread crumbs. Set fillets on a foil-lined pan and bake for 10-12 minutes, until tilapia shreds easily with a fork.