Oysters Rockefeller

In this classic recipe, the Rockefeller name refers to the dollar bill-green color of the sauce — and its richness, as it’s loaded with butter, garlic, spinach and herbs. You can make the butter sauce up to three days ahead and store it in the refrigerator, then drop dollops of it on shucked oysters just before broiling. Watch the oysters carefully as they broil. You want the bread crumbs in the topping to turn golden and the oysters to warm up slightly but not cook through. Serve these with forks on the side; all the hot, buttery sauce makes them too slick for slurping.

Ingredients

• 8

  tablespoons/113 grams unsalted butter

• ½

  cup panko bread crumbs

• 1

  cup finely chopped baby spinach

• 1

  cup finely chopped parsley, leaves and tender stems

• 1

  large shallot, finely chopped

• 2

  garlic cloves, finely grated, passed through a press or minced

• Pinch of fine sea salt or table salt

• 1

  lemon

• Coarse, rock or kosher salt, or crumbled-up foil, for the pan (to stabilize the oysters)

• 24

  oysters, shucked

Preparation

1. In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the bread crumbs and sauté until they are just a tiny bit golden, about 2 minutes. Stir in the spinach, parsley, shallot and garlic. Cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Remove from the heat and stir in a small pinch of salt.
2. Finely grate 1/2 teaspoon zest from the lemon and add it to the bread crumb mixture. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze out 1 tablespoon of the juice; mix into the pan.
3. Heat the broiler to high. Fill a baking pan (or two) with a 1/2-inch layer of salt or line the pan with crumbled up foil (to steady the oysters so the juices don’t spill). Lay the oysters on top of the salt or foil. Spoon about 1/2 tablespoon of the sauce mixture on top of the oysters. Broil until just golden, 1 to 3 minutes. Serve hot, with a squeeze of lemon on top, if you like.