Filets de Sole Dugléré — Sole Poached with Tomato and White Wine

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Filets de Sole Dugléré, created by Adolphe Dugléré at the Café Anglais in the 1860s, is the preparation that introduced tomato as a legitimate element in classical French fish cookery — a radical innovation at the time. Sole fillets are shallow-poached over shallots with white wine and fumet, with the crucial addition of peeled, seeded, and diced tomato (concassée), and finished with a sauce built from the cuisson enriched with butter and a hint of cream. The method: butter a sauteuse, scatter minced shallots (20g) and 2 ripe tomatoes concassées (cut in 1cm dice), lay the folded sole fillets over this bed, add fumet and white wine to one-third depth, apply buttered cartouche, and cook gently in a 180°C oven for 8-10 minutes. Remove the fillets to a warm platter. Reduce the cuisson with its tomato by two-thirds — the tomato breaks down slightly, contributing both acidity and body. Add a splash of cream (30ml) and mount with 40g cold butter. The resulting sauce is pale coral in colour, with visible tomato pieces — it should not be puréed smooth. Nap the fillets, scatter a few leaves of fresh tarragon (Dugléré's preferred herb), and serve. The dish is lighter than the cream-heavy Normande preparations and points toward the direction French fish cookery would eventually take — the cuisson-based sauce enriched only with butter and a touch of cream, the freshness of tomato providing balance without heaviness.

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