• Preheat the oven to 350°F/ 180°C.
• Prepare the pike: Wash the pike very well. Gut it, if necessary. If it is already gutted, remove the head. Keep it to make soup. You could freeze it with the tail and leftover fish pieces to make soup later.

  1 pike

Scale the fish:

• Boil water: Bring a large kettle of water to a boil. You might need to boil two batches of water to fill a large heatproof bowl. Pour the hot water into a very large heatproof bowl or pot that will hold the pike.
• Scale pike: Submerge the headless pike for only a few seconds into the hot water. Take it out, place it onto a large chopping board, and scale it using the back of a smaller knife. Hold the fish steady with the left hand at the tail and scrape the scales with the back of the knife from the tail to the head. The scales should come off easily.

Vegetables:

• Prepare the vegetables: Chop the carrots into rings, the pepper into cubes about the same size, and the onions into thin half-rings. Slice the garlic cloves thinly and slice the tomatoes and lemon as well. Place them into a large and deep baking or casserole dish. Add the bay leaves, peppercorns, and lemon slices.

  3-4 large carrots + 1 red bell pepper + 2 medium onions + 4 garlic cloves + 2 medium tomatoes + 2 bay leaves + 10 black peppercorns + ½ lemon
• Cooking liquid: Pour the white wine and stock into a small bowl. Add the tomato paste and some salt, and whisk well until smooth. Pour the liquid into the dish, place the thyme sprigs on top, and bake the vegetables for about 30 minutes or until almost done.

  ¾ cup white wine/ 175 ml + ⅔ cup fish stock/ 150 ml + 1 tablespoon tomato paste + fine sea salt + a few fresh thyme sprigs

Pike:

• Cut the fish: In the meantime, cut the pike into pieces, about 2 inches/ 5 cm thick. You will need 4 slices for 4 servings, but if you want you can cook all of the pike pieces at this point or use the leftover pieces to make soup or another dish.
• Bake pike: Place the fish pieces on top of the vegetables and continue baking for about 20-25 minutes or until the fish is nice and flaky but not overcooked.
• Serve baked pike: Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve with plain boiled potatoes.

  a small bunch of parsley