Sauvignon Blanc Food Pairing: Plaice with Beurre Noisette

What is the best Sauvignon Blanc food pairing? Great Sauvignon Blanc food pairing ideas include seafood, goat’s cheese and light citrus sauces, with classic examples from the Loire and New World styles alike. 

Originally from France's Loire Valley (it settled in New Zealand a couple of centuries later) it is the perfect partner to all manner of delights from the Pays de la Loire: mussels, anchovies, sardines, corn fed chicken, ham, goats cheese, and Port Salut cheese.

Even if you're opening a bottle from New Zealand, Chile, or South Africa, these Sauvignon Blanc food pairing ideas will work. As the adage has it: "if it grows with it, it goes with it." When wines and foods have a shared history, they are generally ideal bedfellows.   

Sauvignon Blanc is often described as a seafood wine, but that only works if the dish has the right balance. The grape’s natural acidity needs something to latch onto. Butter, citrus and fresh herbs are usually enough.

Sauvignon Blanc food pairing ideas

• Grilled shellfish and mussels
• Goat’s cheese salads
• Citrus-marinated fish
• Light poultry with herbs

My personal preference is for Sauvignon Blanc wines from the banks of the River Loire. You may be surprised to learn that from time to time I have been called an old world wine snob (most notably by my wife).

Loire valley whites have all the zingy, fresh flavours you expect, but with a tendency to grassy and herbal notes. They also have slightly less of the saliva inducing acidity so common in examples from New Zealand.

The French habit of highlighting the place (rather than the grape), means many people do not realise that the elegant wines of Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and Sauvignon de Touraine are, in fact, all made from 100% Sauvignon Blanc. 

In our house, white fish, cooked simply, is a fast and highly effective Sauvignon Blanc food pairing. Below is my version for a quick, yet refined, midweek supper.

Pan Fried Plaice with Buerre Noisette

The plaice came from Jonas Fishmongers. They buy fresh fish daily at Brixham Fish Market and bring it to Totnes Market every Friday and Saturday, as well as to other markets across South Devon. For this recipe, the fresher the fish, the better.

I start with a Plaice, expertly filleted by the fishmonger. This I will pan fry and serve with a Buerre Noisette (literally translated as nutty butter).

Ingredients

• 2 fillets of fresh Plaice
• Salt and pepper to season
• A large knob of butter (plus extra in which to fry the fish)
• A few capers
• A handful of parsely
• 1 lemon

Method

The dish itself is absolute simplicity.

Place a heavy based frying pan over a high heat. Add a little butter. Season the Plaice fillets with salt and pepper. Once the butter starts to bubble, place the fillets, skin side down, in the pan.

Cook for between 3 and 5 minutes (without turning) until the flesh of the fish is just turning opaque. Remove the fillets from the pan.

Now add a large knob of butter to the pan. When it starts to foam squeeze in the juice of one lemon, the butter will change colour from golden yellow to brown (this is where the nutty flavour comes from). At this stage, throw in a few capers and a small handful of parsley, then remove from the heat.

Put the Plaice on to the plates, pour over the Buerre Noisette and add a some sprigs of watercress for decoration.

The browned butter adds weight, the lemon keeps it sharp, and the wine’s acidity cuts through both. Nothing complicated, just balance.

Pour a large, chilled, glass of your preferred Sauvignon Blanc. Enjoy!

Other dishes that suit Sauvignon Blanc

The same principle applies elsewhere. Grilled sea bass with herbs, mussels with garlic, or a simple goat’s cheese salad all work for similar reasons. The wine’s freshness sharpens the dish rather than sitting on top of it.

Pair your chosen Sauvignon Blanc with this dish, or explore more Sauvignon Blanc food pairing ideas on our wine page.