Tsipoura Psiti Recipe (Greek Whole Baked Sea Bream)

Tsipoura, sea bream, is one of the most commonly eaten fish in Greece, and tsipoura psiti, baked simply whole with little beyond olive oil, lemon, garlic and a few herbs, is the classic, deliberately plain way it appears on taverna menus up and down the coast.

This plainness is genuinely the whole point: good, fresh whole fish needs very little dressing up, and a heavier sauce would only get in the way of its own clean, delicate flavour, which is exactly why this preparation has stayed the standard rather than being replaced by something more elaborate.

The technique itself asks for almost no real skill beyond timing, since a whole fish this size bakes through fairly quickly, and the main risk is overcooking rather than anything more complicated.

Key preparation steps

1. Clean and score the whole fish.
2. Stuff the cavity with lemon, garlic and herbs.
3. Drizzle generously with olive oil.
4. Bake until just cooked through.

Preparing the fish

Have your fishmonger clean and scale the sea bream, then score the skin two or three times on each side, which helps it cook evenly and lets the oil and lemon flavour penetrate the flesh a little further.

Stuffing and seasoning

Season the cavity generously with salt, then stuff it with a few lemon slices, a couple of smashed garlic cloves and a small bunch of parsley or oregano sprigs, which perfumes the fish gently from the inside as it bakes.

Baking

Drizzle the fish generously with olive oil, season the skin, and bake in a hot oven for around twenty to twenty-five minutes, until the flesh flakes easily from the bone at the thickest part. Serve with extra lemon and a final drizzle of good olive oil.

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