This is the kind of dish that sits somewhere between a salad and a light main course. Fresh tomatoes bring juiciness, confit tomatoes add concentrated sweetness and richness, while flaky fish makes the dish substantial enough to stand on its own.

The original recipe uses branzino and relies on leftover tomato-confit oil for the dressing, giving the finished salad an extra layer of garlic and herb flavour. Finely diced habanero adds heat, while fresh lemon juice keeps everything sharp and lively.

What You’ll Need

The accessible version of the source confirms the following key components:

- Fresh tomatoes

- Confit tomatoes

- Flaky fish, such as branzino

- Finely diced habanero pepper

- Leftover tomato-confit oil

- Fresh lemon juice

- Salt

The recipe makes 4 servings.

The full member-only ingredient quantities are not visible in the accessible recipe page, so I’m not adding measurements that are not provided in the source.

1. Prepare The Confit Tomatoes

Confit tomatoes form the flavour base of the dish. They are cooked slowly in good-quality oil with plenty of garlic and herbs for about an hour, requiring very little active work.

The slow cooking concentrates their sweetness while softening their texture. It also flavours the oil, which is later used as part of the dressing.

Once prepared, the tomatoes can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one week. That makes them useful well beyond this salad, including with pasta, eggs or soft cheeses.

2. Cook And Flake The Fish

Prepare the fish until it is cooked through and easily separates into large, tender flakes.

Branzino is the suggested choice because its delicate texture works particularly well with the tomatoes, but the important element is keeping the fish in visible pieces rather than breaking it into very small fragments.

This gives the salad more structure and creates a better contrast between the flaky fish and soft tomatoes.

3. Add Fresh Tomato And Habanero

Combine the cooked fish with fresh tomatoes and the prepared confit tomatoes.

Add the habanero very finely diced. Its role is not simply to make the dish hot. Used carefully, it adds sharpness and intensity that balance the sweetness of the tomatoes and the richness of the fish.

Because habanero can be powerful, distributing it finely through the salad helps prevent one bite from becoming overwhelmingly spicy.

4. Make The Dressing

Use some of the reserved tomato-confit oil as the foundation of the dressing.

Add a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice and season with salt.

The infused oil already carries flavour from the garlic and herbs used during the confit process, so the dressing does not need many additional ingredients. The lemon provides enough acidity to keep the salad fresh and prevent the oil and fish from feeling heavy.

5. Toss And Serve

Gently toss the fish and tomatoes with the dressing, taking care not to crush the fish too much.

Serve once everything is evenly coated.

The final dish should feel deliberately contrasting: warm, savoury notes from the fish and confit tomatoes against juicy fresh tomato, sharp citrus and the clean heat of habanero. The result is rich without being heavy, spicy without losing freshness, and especially well suited to the transition from late summer into early autumn.