Italian Inspired Cod! Cod is the perfect foil for these classic Mediterranean flavors-garlic, tomato, black olives with tangy red onion.
Serve it with Yummy Healthy Cauliflower Risotto and you have one healthy meal that does not compromise on flavor one bit!
The other interesting thing about making this dish was I got to try one of the new non-stick pans.
The moral of this story is - don't turn your TV on in the middle of the night when they all those 'paid programming' (read infomercials) are on ! I have been seeing Eric Theiss rave about the Copper Chef Non-Stick pans on a pretty regular basis... so when I was in the mall after Christmas and I saw the 'As Seen on TV' store and there it was - the 10" Non Stick Copper Chef pan calling to me-I happily snapped one up! (I swear there is some psychology around advertising at night... your guard must be down and you get sort of hypnotized..at least that is my story and I'm sticking to it!)
The good news is - I needed a new non-stick pan and so far I am very pleased with this one! All this is leading up to- I was able to pan fry the cod fillets without using any additional oil. The cod didn't brown -which was good- and I got a nicely cooked fillet.
If you don't have a fool proof non-stick pan you can either add bit of oil or a bit of broth if you want to keep it guilt free!
I did add a bit of oil in another pan to sauté the garlic, tomatoes and black olives. As a side I also shaved some zuchini ribbons and just let them warm through in the pan that had held the garlic, tomato mix. They are so thin by the time they are warm they are soft and gently flavored with the garlicky oil.
Garnish the cod with some fresh herbs and sprinkle of sea salt and enjoy guilt-free!
Wine Pairing for Italian Inspired Cod
Cod itself is very mildly flavoured. The garnishes here are what drive the flavour profile. I would lean toward Italian white here, a Falanghina or Soave would both be good. Of course the old Pinot Grigio stand by is so neutral it will go with anything,
Ingredients
- 4 cod fillets (4-6 oz each)
- oil or broth for frying if necessary
- 16 grape tomatoes
- 1 clove minced garlic
- 16 black olives, pitted
- ½ small red onion
- white vinegar enough to soak the onion slices
- fresh dill for garnish or parsley
- sea salt for finishing
Instructions
- Slice the red onion vertically in thin slices. Cover in a single layer with vinegar and let it steep. You can do this hours ahead if you like but soak at least 10 minutes.
- Heat your frying pan over medium heat and cook the cod fillets. Depending on the thickness it could take 5-8 minutes. When the cod is opaque and easy to separate along the natural lines of the fillet it is done.
- While cod is cooking, sauté the tomatoes, garlic and black olives just until heated through.
- Plate the cod and top with tomato mixture, Garnish with red onion slices and fresh dill or parsley.
- Finish with sea salt and serve.
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