Pike-pearch and Lugana are combining perfect match

Combination of food and wine is much more than just a meal. At its best it offers you overall experience starting with catching the raw material, working it and enjoying the meal with proper wine! In Finland during summer time it is common to catch the fish from lake by trolling or less frequently by longline. After that one cannot resist the enjoyment of fresh, delicate fish on a plate with fruity and nuanced whitewine in a glass.

Here it starts, Raimo Vinni is lifting up a pike-pearch with longline, in one of the 168000 lakes (over 0,5 hectares) in Finland. There are some 70 common fresh water fishes in Finland. Pike-perch is of the most sought-after, because of its delicate, less bony and easy to cook essence.

After the fishing session you will have to clean and fillet the catch. For this you need pin and sharp fillet knife.

The outcome after filleting is fresh, white, lucid, elastic, fragile and boneless filet.

Nuanced, delicate and boneless pike-perch gives opportunity to do the cooking so that fish sticks can have taste of authentic fish with some structure to chew. Just cut the filet with the shape on fish sticks, roll with breadcrumb seasoned with salt and fry on a pan with butter to get golden colour. Serve with cooked small new potateos and rémoulade sauce. Simple and tasty.

Lugana enchants and wins over. Deprecated Trebbiano grape has transformed during the decades so that nowadays varietal Trebbiano wines, Lugana at the head, represents one of the best and influential white wine from Italy. Vines for Zenato Lugana Reserva are on average over 20 years old and the yield from one vine yields only 2,5 kg grapes. In the cellar Lugana Riserva is fermented in new oak barrels (70 %) and after the fermentation bottles are maturated six months in new oak barrels and twelve months in the bottle.

Zenato Lugana Riserva. Italy, Veneto 2015. Trebbiano di Lugana, Alko 933427. Price 34,89.
Golden yellow, tropical fruit notes, dry (2 g/l), medium acidic (5,4 g/l), flowery, vanilla, refined and long taste.

Text and photos Heikki Remes
www.viinimies.com