How to Cook Skate Wing: Anchovy Butter and Walnut Pesto

Learn two standout skate wing recipes you can cook at home, plus a trip to Newlin Market and chilled wine pairings from Susie Atkins. At Newlin, the most southerly fishing harbour in the country, we join buyer Robert Redford (Rob) on the auction floor as over 30 species change hands from a fleet of 60+ boats. He shows how buyers judge pristine fish: stiff bodies, bright clear eyes, and pink or red gills. From turbot, brill and red mullet to cod, John Dory, lemon sole, gurnard, Dover sole and blonde ray, this is where the supply chain starts before fish speed overnight to kitchens nationwide. Back in the Fish Food kitchen with James, Sue and Fiona, the first skate wing is seared in hot vegetable oil and finished in a blazing oven for 15 to 20 minutes. We blitz a parsley and garlic butter with Italian salted anchovies, fold in chopped plum tomatoes and lemon, and melt it over the just-set, creamy flesh. Pro tip: roll compound butter in cling film into a cylinder and freeze, then cut off rounds as needed. We head along the coast to the Old Coast Guard Hotel in Maizle, where owner manager Freddie Wood plates skate with a basil, rosemary, caper and toasted walnut pesto from garden tomatoes, and another with caramelized orange zest and lemon balm. Seasonal tempura courgettes steal the scene too. Back at the stove, we recreate that walnut pesto: garlic, a pinch of salt, fresh or toasted walnuts, basil and good extra virgin olive oil blitzed to a coarse sauce, with capers pulsed in at the end. The second skate wing gets a deep golden sear and 25 minutes in a hot oven before being spooned with the pesto. To eat, simply scrape the flesh from the soft central cartilage bone. Wine expert Susie Atkins pairs these bold flavors with a vivid, young Bordeaux rose served ice cold, and a salty, bone-dry Manzanilla sherry. Treat sherry like a dry white wine: keep it chilled and drink it fresh. #SkateWing #SeafoodRecipes #AnchovyButter #WalnutPesto #NewlinMarket #WinePairing #SusieAtkins