Drinks advice · Wine and food

South of France fish soup with Lorgeril Les Mouettes Picpoul de Pinet

A soup of white fish, mussels, fennel and saffron, served with toasted bread and garlic mayonnaise. Picpoul de Pinet comes from the area around the Thau lagoon, where it has stood on the table beside shellfish for centuries.

Back to the recommendations

Bottle of Lorgeril Les Mouettes Picpoul de Pinet, wine

From the shelf

The bottle

Lorgeril Les Mouettes Picpoul de Pinet comes from the Languedoc in France and is made from picpoul. The wine is 13% vol. and the bottle holds 75 centilitres. Picpoul is a grape that naturally retains a lot of acidity, and that is exactly what this wine relies on: it is dry and taut, with no oak ageing getting in between.

Lorgeril Les Mouettes Picpoul de Pinet

The combination

Why this works together

Fish soup is salty from the stock and rich from the olive oil and the garlic mayonnaise. Without a counterweight, that fat lingers in the mouth. The high acidity of picpoul cuts straight through it, so every spoonful starts fresh again. Just as important is what the wine does not have: no oak and no tannin. Oak would push the saffron aside, and tannin reacts with fish and shellfish to produce a metallic, tinny taste. A taut, unoaked white wine leaves the fish standing and only keeps the fat in check.

At the table

The dish

  • Before 4 people
  • Ready in 50 minutes
  • Type main course

What you need

  • 600 grams of firm white fish, such as cod or saithe
  • 500 grams of mussels
  • 1 fennel bulb
  • 2 onions
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 400 grams canned diced tomatoes
  • 1 litre fish stock
  • 150 millilitres dry white wine
  • 1 sachet of saffron threads
  • 1 orange
  • 4 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 8 slices of baguette
  • 4 tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 1 pinch of cayenne pepper
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper

How to make it

  1. Rinse the mussels under cold water and discard any that are open and do not close after a tap.
  2. Cut the fennel and the onions into thin strips. Finely chop three cloves of garlic and keep the fourth whole.
  3. Heat three tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan and sweat the fennel and onion for ten minutes until soft without letting them colour. Add the chopped garlic and cook for a minute.
  4. Pour in the white wine and reduce it by half. Add the diced tomatoes, the fish stock, the saffron and two strips of orange peel.
  5. Let the soup simmer gently for twenty minutes and season with salt and pepper.
  6. Toast the slices of baguette in the oven or the toaster and rub them with the whole garlic clove. Stir the mayonnaise with the cayenne pepper and a pinch of saffron into a rouille.
  7. Cut the fish into coarse chunks. Add them to the soup, bring everything to just below the boil and turn off the heat; the fish cooks in the residual heat in four minutes.
  8. Add the mussels, put the lid on and let them open in three to four minutes. Discard the mussels that stay closed and serve the soup with the bread and the rouille.

In the glass

Serving

Serve the wine at 8 to 10 degrees in a white wine glass with a narrow bowl. This wine is meant to be drunk young and cool; letting it breathe or decanting adds nothing. Put the bottle back in the cooler between glasses.

Everything about Lorgeril Les Mouettes Picpoul de PinetBack to Drinks advice from ’t Bockje

Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18