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.
Tomato concassée: peeled, seeded, and cut in 1cm dice — not crushed or puréed The tomato cooks WITH the fish, not added to the sauce later — it infuses the cuisson Reduce the cuisson with the tomato by two-thirds — the tomato provides natural pectin for body Do not strain — visible tomato pieces in the sauce are the signature of Dugléré Tarragon is the canonical herb — not parsley, not chervil
In winter when fresh tomatoes lack flavour, use a teaspoon of good tomato paste dissolved in the cuisson to reinforce the tomato note A few drops of Pernod added with the wine echo the anise note of tarragon and add depth The preparation works brilliantly with turbot or halibut fillets — the meatier fish stands up well to the tomato's acidity
Using unripe tomatoes that add only acidity without sweetness — ripe, in-season tomatoes are essential Puréeing the sauce smooth — Dugléré is defined by the visible tomato dice Failing to peel and seed the tomatoes — the skin toughens and the seeds add bitterness Overloading with tomato, turning it into a tomato sauce rather than a fish sauce accented with tomato Omitting the butter mount — without it, the sauce lacks the glossy emulsion that binds it
Escoffier, Le Guide Culinaire; Larousse Gastronomique