Erica De Mane

Skate with Neapolitan flavorings, and a side of cheesy broccoli.

Recipes:
Sautéed Skate with Puttanesca Sauce
Broccoli with Spring Garlic, Vermouth, and Pecorino

Many people get nervous at the thought of cooking skate, a devilish ray from a voyage to the deep. There is really no need to worry. Skate is one of the easier seafoods to prepare. It stays moist even if slightly overdone, a rare quality for any seafood. It’s forgiving. It tastes like lobster. It’s absolutely delicious. Many of my friends will order it on a menu but not have the courage to bring it into their home. Bring it in. I’ll show you what to do.

Skate has no bony, fish-like skeleton, but instead is held together by cartilage, much like what keeps the tip of our nose jutting out from our face. You can cook it with the cartilage intact, but it’s easier to consume when filleted. Since the fillet is a little tricky to work off the cartilage in one piece, have your fish seller do it. Most places sell it already cleaned anyway.

My favorite way to cook skate is a quick pan sauté in a slick of olive oil, much the way I treat any number of fairly firm, white fish fillets, such as catfish or sole. I do a light dusting of flour, salt, and pepper, get the skillet really hot, and brown the skate well on both sides for a crisp crust and delicate insides. When cooked, a skate wing separates naturally into juicy, very tender cords that resemble crab meat (and that do, I swear, taste like lobster).

Skate is rich. It needs acidity. A standard French bistro treatment is a pan sauté with a finish of capers, lemon, and brown butter. They got that one right. Puttanesca, as all you Italian food lovers out there know, is a pasta preparation from Naples. The components, all strong flavors, usually capers, olives, anchovies, tomato, garlic, and herbs, go great with rich seafood, so I’ve decided on a Puttanesca-like sauce to top my skate.

I used marjoram in my puttanesca, a replacement for the dried oregano more typically employed in Southern Italy. Dried oregano can get tiresome and even sometimes taste bitter. Marjoram, a cousin to oregano, is for me a very special herb. I find its aroma glorious, like a Southern Italian perfume I’d like to dab behind my ears (I can’t imagine wanting to smell like oregano). Marjoram is a flowery, less pungent version of its sometimes acrid relative. It’s not gentle, though. It’s profound, almost startling, with its floral bouquet. You can overdo it with marjoram, so I use only a few sprigs, and I try to save it for special dishes, so I don’t overdose on the taste. It’s amazing with any type of tomato preparation, from cooked sauces to raw tomato salads.

If you serve the skate with the simple broccoli recipe I’ve included here, one small piece of Italian bread, and a glass or two of lovely Italian wine, you’ll have a dieter’s feast, a low-cal trip to the Naples of my mind. For wine, try a Falanghina, a full-bodied but very refreshing white wine made from the ancient Campanian grape variety of the same name. Feudi di San Gregorio’s Falanghina from the Sannio district is delicious and not hard to find in the United States.

One additional note about cooking skate: The big triangular shaped fillets (or wings, as they’re often called), take up a lot of space in a skillet. Cooking them for two is ideal, which is the recipe I give you here. If you want to double it, just set up two skillets, and cook two in each.

(Both recipes serve 2 as a main course)

Sautéed Skate with Puttanesca Sauce

For the sauce:

½ pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 garlic clove, minced
A small palmful of capers
About 6 green olives, pitted and chopped
A small handful of pine nuts, lightly toasted
2 anchovy fillets, minced
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
4 sprigs fresh marjoram, the leaves lightly chopped

For the skate:

2 boneless skate wings, about 6 or 7 ounces each
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ cup all-purpose flour
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

A pinch of sugar
Extra-virgin olive oil
½ lemon

To make the sauce, simply mix all the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl, and let sit for about a half hour, unrefrigerated, to develop flavor. I haven’t included salt as an ingredient, since many of the things you’ll be adding are salty, but taste after letting it sit to judge if it might need a little.

To cook the skate, smear the mustard over both sides of the skate wings. Pour the flour onto a plate, and season it very well with salt, black pepper, and a pinch of sugar (this will help it brown). Coat the skate with the flour.

Set up a large skillet over high heat. When the skillet is hot, add about 3 tablespoons of olive oil, letting the oil get hot but not to the point of smoking. Add the skate wings, and let them sauté, not moving them around at all, until browned and crisp on one side, about 4 minutes. Give them a flip with a spatula, and brown the other side, about 4 minutes longer. Take the skate from the skillet with the spatula (don’t use tongs; skate is very tender when cooked and can fall apart if grabbed by an end). Lay the skate out on paper towels for a moment to absorb excess oil, and then transfer it to two warmed dinner plates. Squeeze lemon over the skate, and top with a generous amount of the Puttanesca sauce. Serve right away.

Broccoli with Spring Garlic, Vermouth, and Pecorino

1 medium bunch broccoli, cut into flowerets, the stems peeled and thinly sliced
Extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves young spring garlic, thinly sliced
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A generous splash of dry vermouth
1 heaping tablespoon grated young pecorino cheese (such as a pecorino Toscana)

Set up a pot of water, and bring it to a boil. Drop in the broccoli, and blanch for about 4 minutes. Drain it into a colander, and run cold water over it to bring up its color. Drain well.

In a medium skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil. When hot, add the garlic, and let it sauté about a minute. Add the broccoli, seasoning with salt and black pepper. Sauté for a few minutes to coat the broccoli well with flavor. Add the vermouth, and let it boil away. Transfer the broccoli to a serving bowl, and toss with the pecorino. Serve hot.