Wine producer teaches the best cod recipe – 03/24/2024 – Red or White

Wine, cod and olive oil celebrate during Holy Week. Even though I was never a fervent Catholic, I always liked the cod ritual on Good Friday. Today, however, people eat cod even on Easter Sunday (when eating meat is already allowed by the church). My Virgo side is a little irritated by this lack of precision, but my stomach celebrates. I love cod.

One of the recipes I like most is codfish. That’s why I was really interested when Casimiro Gomes, a partner in the Lusovini group, at a lunch we had the other day, started talking about how his mother made cod in a lagareiro.

Lusovini, Vinhos de Portugal started in Dão and today has wineries in several regions of the country such as Douro, Alentejo and Vinho Verde. Casimiro’s family winery in Bairrada, Regateiro, Vinhos de Família, is now also linked to the group. The lunch promoted by importer TDP Wines was precisely around Regateiro wines.

As soon as the lagareiro cod dish arrived at the table, Casimiro began to remember his mother’s kitchen. When he was a child (and didn’t even dream of founding Lusovini), next to the Bairrada winery, the family’s olive oil mill operated. “In the past, olive oil extraction was done hot,” he recalled. “To heat the water, wood-fired boilers were used. In these boilers, there was a part where there was a flame and, below it, a part where the ash fell. It was in this part, below the flame and the embers, that the potatoes, onions and cod”.

This gave the dish a smoky touch that doesn’t appear in restaurant recipes. “In the end, my mother threw the olive oil that had just come out of the press over everything,” she remembers. “This filled the winery with the aroma of the dish. When we receive groups of tourists at Regateiro, my brothers and I go to the kitchen and try to rescue this and other recipes from my mother. Today she is quite old and no longer cooks there, but she still lives next to the winery. The other day I asked her if these lunches made a lot of noise and bothered her. She replied that, on the contrary, she liked it. The movement made her imagine herself there in the old wine press cooking for all of us.”

According to Casimiro, even in a common kitchen, it is possible to recreate the traditional way of preparing cod a lagareiro (see recipe below). For those who do, he recommends four Lusovini wines that can be found in Brazil, two whites and two reds (see list below). Wines he drinks with cod. Personally, I am of the opinion that, contrary to what the Portuguese (and many Brazilians) think, cod is fish and, therefore, goes better with white.

Cod lagareiro

Ingredients

Potato balls, 4 potatoes per person

1 onion for every 4 people, not very large, with ripe skin

1 desalted cod fillet per person

Extra virgin olive oil (as much as is needed)

3 cloves of garlic

Way of doing

Wash the potato well with the skin on and place in a metal pan. Pour a pinch of salt over them. Place in the oven at 185⁰ C. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes. Do not add water. Give them a stir three times during this period. In the same oven, in another pan, place the onions with their skins on.

If you have a barbecue, grill the cod, searing it on each side, and then put it in the oven. When everything is cooked, heat the olive oil (without boiling) with the crushed garlic. Remove the onions. Carefully separate the skin from the inner part (be aware that the onion is deceptive with temperature and can cause burns).

Place the potatoes in a clay mold and give them a light crush, a “punch”. Place the pieces of onion on top of the potatoes and another pinch of salt. Then, place the cod fillets on top. Drizzle everything with plenty of olive oil and serve.

Wine List (Casimiro’s suggestions)

Regateiro Junior White – Bairrada. Bical, Maria Gomes and Arinto. “It is a wine without oak aging and therefore quite fresh, it goes perfectly on a hotter day.” It costs R$ 114.49 at Total Vinhos.

Regateiro Reserva Red – Bairrada. Baga and touriga nacional. “This wine, due to its structure, allows an excellent combination with dishes with a lot of olive oil, as is the case with this recipe.” It costs R$ 236.96 at Total Vinhos.

Pedra Cancela Vinha da Fidalga White Encruzado – Give. “The Encruzado grape allows us to obtain wines with high structure and complexity, combining with this cod dish as if it were a red wine. For those who prefer white wines, it is a super good combination.” It costs R$ 250.28 at Total Vinhos.

Pedra Cancela Vinha da Fidalga Red – Give. “It is a wine in which the alfrocheiro and touriga nacional varieties are harmoniously married. It allows a combination in which the taste buds do not become saturated and makes this cod dish very appetizing.” It costs R$ 250.28 at Total Vinhos.

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