Updated: December 18, 2012 8:48AM

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

¼ cup diced bacon

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

8 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and chopped (see Note)

1 shallot, very thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 tablespoons dry white wine

1 (15-ounce) can cannellini or Great Northern beans, rinsed and drained

1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if large

2 anchovy fillets, chopped (optional)

½ cup pitted kalamata olives, quartered lengthwise

1 pound Manila clams

Juice of 1 lemon

3 tablespoons chopped parsley

6 (6-ounce) sturgeon fillets, skin removed (see Note)

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 400. Set large frying pan with high sides over medium heat. Add bacon and cook, stirring until crisp (remove excess fat, if you wish). Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, mushrooms, shallot and garlic. Stir until mushrooms are slightly limp, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add butter, wine, beans, tomatoes, anchovies, if using, and olives. Stir over high heat until butter is melted and liquid comes to boil. Add clams and lemon juice. Cover pan and cook over medium heat until clams open, 8 to 10 minutes. Discard any clams that don’t open. (You also can place pan in the oven to cook the clams.)

Remove clams, pull out clam meat and add back to sauce. Add chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper.

Season each sturgeon fillet with salt and pepper. Heat sauté pan over medium-high and add remaining olive oil. Place fish in pan flesh side down (the side that had skin should be up). Cook on one side ¾ of way, then flip (flesh should be browned), place pan in oven and finish cooking. This will take 4 to 6 minutes, depending on thickness of fish.

Spoon mushroom-clam sauce onto plates and place fish on top.

Note: Crimini, button mushrooms or chanterelles (fresh or dried and reconstituted) work well.

You can use any firm, white fish such as halibut, cobia, grouper or striped bass.

Adapted from Mark Palicki, Fortune Fish Co.

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