Recipe: Roasted Catfish with Tomato and Olive Salad

We're having a discussion regarding the picture.  Mrs. Chezwhat says the dish looks greasy.  I'm thinknig succulent.  There's no golden-brown-crispy to be had here; the catfish steam-roasted in a bed of fresh oregano and sliced organic red onion.  The bubbles you see in the released stock are olive oil.  The dish is very Mediterraneany; much olive oil flavor, briny olives, heirloom tomatoes for one sweet and the catfish has its own.  Very herby, too, with all the fresh oregano - and the onion is a little high note that holds the other flavors on a string.
Jeanne thinks it's a fantastically good thing that doesn't photograph well.  Succulent and flaky are what the fish was in person; the question is how well the also flaky photographer presented it.  Now back to the post as originally written:

Hey, just because I haven’t posted in a week doesn’t mean I haven’t been cooking.  That’s right, a triple negative.  Don’t deny not being unamused. 

We have many delicious tomatoes from the farm. If you have the same, and eight people to feed, and access to good catfish, you might try this. I did.  It worked out well.

Salad dressing:

Combine in a blender jar then blend until smooth and emulsified:

½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup red-wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, peeled
one canned or jarred anchovy fillet
½ teaspoon black peppercorns

Salad:

In a salad bowl, combine:

2 pounds fresh heirloom tomatoes, different colors and sizes.  Slice, half, quarter, or dice, or leave whole so pieces are about the size of a cherry tomato.
24 oil-cured black olives, pitted and sliced
2 tablespoons julienned oil-packed sun dried tomatoes
3 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano

Toss with the dressing and set aside.

Baked catfish:

4 pounds catfish fillets
¼ cup olive oil, divided
1 medium red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
6 long sprigs oregano, with flowers if present
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

Pour 1½ tablespoons olive oil and the salt and pepper into a roasting pan.  Blend the oil, salt and pepper with your hands. (Tip ahead: this is a quick way to oil and season things-too-large-to-toss) Add the fillets to the pan, and cover them with the seasoned oil from your hands and the pan.  Set half aside, and arrange the other half on the bottom of the pan.  Cover with half the onion slices, half the oregano sprigs, then the rest of the onion and the rest of the oregano.  Top with the remaining fillets and drizzle with the remaining olive oil. 

Bake, uncovered, until done, about 30 minutes - your time will vary with the thickness of the fillets.  If possible, use a temperature probe and cook until the thickest part of a bottom fillet is 140 degrees.  Otherwise, test for doneness after 20 minutes and continue cooking until tho thickest bottom fillet flakes easily. 

Cut into serving pieces, removing the oregano sprigs.  Plate with some of the onion and top with some of the salad.  Nice with sourdough bread you made your daughter go out and get, at least in my experience.