Poached fish is not a dish that automatically springs to mind when one thinks of fresh fish but it really does make for a lovely, light summer meal and for today's dish we will be using fresh kingklip, but any firm white fish will do.

Our regular supply of fresh haarders dried up some years ago with the demise of trek-fishermen who used to fish from Hout Bay beach, but I am sure that these delightful fish would also work well in this dish, as will fresh snoek.

I have been singing Italy's praises ever since we visited that lovely country recently but with good reason – it is a country that is passionate about food and we enjoyed some of the finest dishes we have ever tasted during our stay.

This dish is a speciality of the Lake Garda region where the most popular fish are carp, alborella, freshwater trout and whitefish.

Today's dish is based on the area's tasty white fish (coregone) served in a sharp Garda sauce. I brought a couple of bottles of Italian wine back from Italy and cannot wait to try this dish with some of our own tasty sea and freshwater fish, other than the kingklip we are using today.

To serve four portions kingklip and savoury Garda sauce you need:

Ingredients

1 kg kingklip, skinned and filleted (you can leave the fish whole but it just means more work once it has been poached)

4 bay leaves

2 carrots, scraped and sliced into big chunks

1 onion, peeled and quartered

2 teaspoons of mixed fresh herbs (or herb of your preference)

1 teaspoon lightly crushed black pepper corns

1 tablespoon brandy

Enough water to just submerge the fish.

For the sauce:

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 small tin or bottle of anchovies, drained, patted with kitchen paper to soak up access oil and coarsely chopped

Then juice of ½ lemon

1 tablespoon fresh capers, well drained

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Mix all the sauce ingredients together well and set aside.

Place the fish and all the ingredients in a pot, cover with water and gently simmer until fish is just done.

Remove from water, pat dry and set aside to cool.

Once cooled off, use your hands or a fork to flake the fish.

Place in serving dish and pour over the sauce.

Pour the sauce over the fish about 10 minutes before serving.

The Italians eat this fish with polenta but this tasty seafood dish also goes well with pasta, couscous or brown rice.

Give it an extra Italian push and serve it with a bottle of chilled prosecco… then close your eyes and imagine you can hear the waves of Lake Garda lapping on the beach at sunset.