I've made this more than a few times in the past year, and I make it the same... and different... every time. It's just a basic white sauce/alfredo sauce with spinach; poured over tilapia and baked in the oven.
I thought I had posted this before, but a quick search doesn't reveal it, so maybe I haven't. However, I do have photos in my files from 3 different times I've made it - so the post will have pictures from different days - which means different pans and even different kinds of tilapia. Sometimes I use fresh tilapia, other times I've used Parmesan crusted tilapia from the frozen food section of Sam's Club.
This last time, I had used frozen spinach straight from the freezer that I had simply thrown the entire plastic container of fresh spinach into the deep freeze when it was needing to be used up but I was going out of town. I just tossed the container into the freezer, took out 2 handfuls to use today and was quite happy to see it worked perfectly! I didn't know if it would have been too watery, as 'frozen' spinach containers are... nope! So apparently if you have a large container of fresh spinach leaves, it works to just put the whole container in the deep freezer and pull it out later to use in cooked dishes.
Note: Use fresh or frozen tilapia, parmesan encrusted tilapia, catfish or any kind of white fish that you like! Also feel free to use fresh or frozen spinach. Also - the amounts are approximate as you are just making a simple sauce. Use more or less garlic or onion depending on what you like. If you don't want to use green onions, I suppose some onion powder would work just fine too. Maybe a 1/2 teaspoon-ish?
Tilapia Florentine
2-3 T butter
1-3 green onions
1-2 t fresh minced garlic
2-3 oz. cream cheese
1 c heavy cream
salt and pepper
thyme
1/2 c Parmesan
1-2 handfuls fresh spinach leaves, or a small box of frozen spinach, thawed and drained
Tilapia - fresh, frozen or even Parmesan Crusted/Seasoned - 3-5 pieces
Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the green onion and garlic. Add the cream cheese and stir, press and heat until it's melting. Add the cream cheese, season with salt and pepper and about a 1/2 teaspoon thyme. Add the Parmesan, stir until smooth and add the spinach.
Lay the fish in a greased baking dish or casserole dish. Pour the sauce over and bake at 400-425 ish for about 20 minutes.
