Gordon Ramsay’s sea bass with pepper sauce is crispy-skinned fillets with a roasted red pepper sauce from The F Word. Star anise, shallots, basil and white wine vinegar give the sauce its depth. The recipe comes from The F Word, where he fillets a whole sea bass on camera and cooks the dish in about 15 minutes.
In the F Word episode he cooks without measuring, so the quantities below come from watching the method closely. In Secrets he has a different version of the same sauce, which tells you how much he values this combination.
The star anise is what nobody expects in a red pepper sauce. It adds an aniseed warmth that stops the sauce from being one-note sweet, and Ramsay says it goes beautifully with the natural sweetness of the peppers.
Gordon Ramsay’s Sea Bass with Pepper Sauce
Course: Dinner, MainCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Medium2
servings10
minutes15
minutes380
kcal25
minutesA red pepper sauce with star anise from The F Word. Ramsay fillets the sea bass live on camera and builds the sauce in minutes. In Secrets he has a restaurant version of the same sauce using Noilly Prat vermouth and vegetable nage, served with salmon. This home version uses just water and vinegar.
Ingredients
- For the pepper sauce:
2 red peppers
2 shallots, sliced
2 star anise
Olive oil, for frying
Sea salt
Handful of fresh basil leaves
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
200ml (¾ cup) water
- For the fish:
1 whole sea bass (about 700g-1kg), filleted (or 2 fillets, skin on)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil, for frying
Directions
- Prepare the peppers: Rather than cutting the peppers in half and removing the seeds, cut around them as if peeling an orange. This leaves the seeds behind in one piece and gives you clean strips of pepper. Slice into pieces.
- Build the sauce: Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the shallots and star anise, season with salt and cook until the shallots soften. Add the basil leaves and pepper strips.
- Add the liquid: Pour in the white wine vinegar and let it reduce. Add 200ml water and bring to a simmer. Cook for 8–10 minutes until the peppers are soft and the sauce is vibrant. The liquid will reduce and thicken naturally.
- Score the fish: While the sauce simmers, score the sea bass skin 3–4 times with a sharp knife. Season with salt and pepper.
- Pan-fry the fish: Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan over high heat. Lay the fillets skin-side down and press gently with your fingers for 30 seconds to stop them curling. Cook for 2–3 minutes until the skin is crisp and golden. You know it is ready when the flesh starts turning bright white from the bottom up.
- Finish: Turn the fish over carefully and cook for 30 seconds more. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil. Serve the fish on the pepper sauce.
Notes
- Ramsay fillets the whole sea bass on The F Word, running the knife down the backbone in one long swipe. If you buy pre-filleted sea bass, skip straight to step 4. The star anise can be removed before serving or left in for presentation.
FAQs
How does Ramsay fillet a whole sea bass?
On The F Word he does it in one movement. He lays the fish flat, runs the knife along the backbone in one long stroke and lifts the fillet off clean. He calls it “one nice long swipe” and makes it look simple, though it takes practice.
If you want to try it at home, ask your fishmonger to descale and gut the bass first. That leaves you with just the filleting to do. For thicker fish like halibut, his halibut guide covers different cuts and preparation methods across seven of his books.
Is this pepper sauce the same as sea bass with tomato ketchup?
No, they are completely different. The pepper sauce on this page uses roasted red peppers with star anise, shallots and white wine vinegar. His tomato ketchup from Great British Pub Food is a separate condiment made with tomatoes, vinegar and sugar, served with crusted cod fillets.
People search for “sea bass tomato ketchup” but what they usually mean is this red pepper sauce. The confusion comes from the colour: both are red, both go with fish, but the flavour is nothing alike. The aniseed warmth in the pepper sauce takes it somewhere a ketchup cannot go.
Why does Ramsay add star anise to the pepper sauce?
Star anise is more common in Asian cooking, which is why nobody expects it in a French pepper sauce. Ramsay says it goes beautifully with the sweetness of the peppers because the aniseed acts as a counterweight. Without it the sauce is just sweet peppers and vinegar.
In Secrets he has a restaurant version of this sauce using Noilly Prat vermouth, vegetable nage, butter and fresh herbs like tarragon, chervil and thyme. That version has no star anise because all those herbs and the vermouth do the balancing instead. The F Word version is simpler, so the star anise carries everything those ingredients would. If you cannot find star anise, half a teaspoon of fennel seeds gives you a similar aniseed note.
How does Ramsay cut the peppers for this sauce?
He cuts around the pepper as if peeling an orange, rather than halving it and scraping out the seeds. This leaves the seed core behind in one clean piece and gives you strips of pepper with no seeds or white pith mixed in.
It is faster than the usual halve-and-scrape method, and you waste less pepper. He says on the show to “do the job once” rather than fiddling with seeds afterwards. The sauce comes out cleaner because no stray seeds end up in the liquid.
Can you use this pepper sauce with other fish?
Yes. The sauce works with any firm white fish: cod, bream, halibut, or his Mediterranean sea bass which uses a tomato and olive sauce instead. Ramsay serves a version of this same sauce with salmon in the Secrets book, so it crosses from lean white fish to richer oily fish.
For oily fish like mackerel, his salsa verde with its sharp capers and vinegar cuts the richness better than the sweeter pepper sauce. The pepper sauce is at its best with mild, white-fleshed fish where the star anise can come through.
