Ina Garten’s 20-Minute Seared Snapper is so dreamy

After more than 25 years at NBC, Hoda Kotb hosted her final episodes of the series Today slike last week. The longtime host has done a little bit of everything, from reporting from war zones and Olympic villages to hanging out in the world Today Studio with the likes of Prince Harry and Snoop Dogg.

As part of her big farewell, the… Today There was plenty of “Hoda-Bration” fanfare on the show last week, including a visit from Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa herself. Garten brought a few recipes and a few glasses of French 75 — a classic gin and champagne cocktail — to offer a final toast to Hoda’s hosting days.

One of the recipes Garten brought is a simple six-ingredient snapper recipe that Garten hopes will make its way into Kotb’s dinner series. After all, it’s almost as easy as the two-ingredient ponzu fish dinner that Kotb likes to recommend—and we’ll almost certainly try both recipes.

How to Make Hoda Kotb’s Ponzu Fish

Kotb greatly appreciated her ponzu fish recipe and she often shared the recipe on episodes of Today. With only two ingredients, its simplicity is certainly part of the appeal. To make it, Kotb starts with a baking dish, some black cod, and a bottle of ponzu sauce.

Kotb places her cod pieces in the baking dish—a spritz of cooking spray helps prevent sticking—and drizzles the ponzu sauce over each piece until a pool of ponzu forms in the baking dish, rising about halfway up the fish. Then bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes. To be sure, you can check the internal temperature of the fish with a meat thermometer, which should be 145°F after cooking.

The resulting fish, Kotb says, is similar to the black cod served at Nobu, where it’s cooked in a delicious miso marinade. Because this version only has two ingredients and takes a fraction of the time to prepare, it may be one of the easiest copycat recipes we’ve ever encountered.

How to make Ina’s 20-minute snapper

As a tribute to Kotb’s dedicated love of simple recipes like her ponzu fish, Garten has brought one of the easiest and tastiest fish dishes in her arsenal. Her simple mustard fried fish is a little more complicated with six ingredients, but takes even less time to prepare—you can have this dinner on the table in 20 minutes.

“That’s Hoda-friendly,” Garten said to a laughing Kotb Today Show segment.

The recipe, which Garten says he learned from a cloakroom attendant in Paris, begins by arranging red snapper on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Garten sprinkles each piece with salt and pepper, then pulls out some crème fraîche, Dijon mustard, whole-grain mustard, chopped shallots, and capers. She mixes all the ingredients in a bowl and then spreads a layer of the mixture on each piece of fish.

While the fish is covered with a flavorful topping, she bakes the snapper at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 to 15 minutes until cooked through. Garten suggests serving roasted broccolini, which she tosses with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then bakes with the fish for about seven minutes. After a quick bite, both Kotb and her co-host Jenna Bush Hager were completely convinced.

“The fish is so delicious,” Kotb said after tasting it. The broccolini, which Hager and Kotb say they usually avoid, also received rave reviews. “You changed my mind about broccolini,” Hager said.

Since Garten completed the little taste test with a plate of bright and fruity lemon bars, you essentially have an entire dinner menu in your hands.

Preparing Ina’s fish at home

Nobody loves celebrities *or* fish more than us, and we appreciate Kotb and Garten proving that cooking delicious fish can be so easy. Garten’s recipe may be more complicated, but her combination of strong mustard gives the dish plenty of vinegary flavor. The addition of aromatic shallots and salty capers balances this acidity with a pleasant texture and savory bite. Overall, it is a predominantly nutrient-rich preparation.

Aside from that, the other main ingredient is crème fraîche, which is definitely delicious but also provides a decent amount of saturated fat. Most people should aim to get no more than 10% of their calories from saturated fat, and if you follow a heart-healthy diet, you can even include less saturated fat in your diet.

If you would like to reduce the amount of saturated fat in this recipe, we have some ideas for modifications. The recipe calls for 8 ounces of crème fraîche for four servings, which ends up yielding about ¼ cup of sauce per fillet. One option is to simply reduce the amount of sauce you use to cover the fish – for example, use 2 tablespoons per fillet. You can also try omitting the crème fraîche altogether, leaving you with a more concentrated mustard blend like the one we use in our smoked maple mustard salmon.

And if you feel like experimenting, you can also add some low-fat sour cream or plain Greek yogurt instead of the crème fraîche. We haven’t tried it ourselves yet, but with a little tinkering you’ll be able to get it right.

No matter how you serve it, a quick squeeze of lemon on top is a must—especially if you also drizzle a little over your broccolini.