Wine Pairing with Parmesan Fish

I am a bit of a Jamie Oliver fan. I like the fact that his recipes are generally straightforward without too many ingredients and of course, extremely tasty. In his book Jamie’s Dinners he has a section called five minute wonders. These are all recipes for one person that can be prepared and cooked in a matter of minutes. I often make these meals as mid-week family dinners and whilst they take me longer than five minutes they are certainly ready in about half an hour. One of my favourites is Parmesan Fish. It’s easy peasy just coat four cod fillets in an egg, followed by flour, and finally parmesan cheese then fry on both sides with a couple of chopped red chilli’s. In the summer I go with the recipe and serve it with a salad, but at this time of year I prefer to serve it with carrots and green beans (and also new potatoes for the larger eaters in my household – husband and eldest son). The end result is delicious and healthy and even my youngest son (fussy eater) devours this one.

My husband says this is one of his favourite dinners, but what wine should we pair with it?

Wine Pairing with Parmesan Fish – the wine

Erica recommends…

This is a dish that can pair with many, many wines. Why? Because it is not over-powering in any particular taste. Many people would be nervous about, or just totally disregard, red wine with this, but many reds will pair well. What helps to pair many wines are the fact that this is a salty dish, thereby softening out the acid and/or tannin in wines and bringing out the fruit flavours. The key factor here is that the dish is not overly strong in flavour and not extreme in any taste area. Even though there is some savoury taste in the cheese it is offset by the salt content too, even a couple of chillis should be safe for most palates as they are a minor part of the dish, it is not particularly fatty or creamy either. So pick a wine that is perhaps a medium flavoured wine so something like a merlot, malbec, Rioja Crianza for reds, or Soave Classico, Albariño, New Zealand Pinot Gris, for whites.

My personal recommendation would be a Gini Soave Classico from Justerini & Brooks (note – prices are for 6 or 12 bottles) showing the potential of this wine beyond just a standard Soave.

Wine Pairing with Parmesan Fish written by Julie Strutt DipM and Erica Dent DipWSET, Enjoy Discovering Wine