Crispy crumbs make this fish dish a favorite

Special to the Washington Post

This is one of those dishes that feels like home to me. It is not only similar to one mother had in regular rotation when I was a kid — when she would roll flounder fillets (often fish my dad had caught off the Long Island coast) with bread crumbs and butter, then sprinkle them with lemon juice and bake it — it also happens to be one of my daughter’s favorites and a weeknight go-to in our home. I put my own stamp on it, mostly with the goal of making the bread crumbs as crispy as possible (because, really, who can resist crispy bread crumbs?) and with an eye on optimizing the dish’s healthfulness.

Toasting dried bread crumbs in a skillet with olive oil and a little butter before adding them to the fish gets the crumbs ultra-crispy and browned, with just enough buttery flavor, allowing the focus to be on cooking the fish just right, rather than risk overcooking it to get the bread crumbs well done. I use whole-grain crumbs — either homemade from sandwich bread or storebought panko — and season them with fresh garlic, thyme leaves and lemon zest. Keeping the fillets flat, rather than rolling them like my mom did, and adding the lemon juice once everything is done lets the crumbs stay crispier as well.

I still love flounder, and that works well for this recipe. But I prefer sole’s slightly firmer texture. Either way, this is a dinner I am happy to come back to again and again, and I think you will be, too.