Easy Baked Cod with Olive Relish and Paso Albarino

Easy Baked Cod is delicious topped with an olive lemon relish! Even better with a nice Albariño white wine from Paso Robles. Disclosure: the wine was sent as a complimentary sample.

Over the past year, I’ve discovered our son loves baked haddock. I adapted the approach I use to make that, and cooked up this Easy Baked Cod with Olive Relish.

B skipped the olive relish, but gives the Easy Baked Cod preparation a thumbs up. Glad to have another type of fish he is eager to enjoy with me! I try to do a fish meal at least once per week on average. Cod seems to be on sale at the store a fair amount, perhaps because it can be caught not to far from our New England coastline.

I could eat the Easy Baked Cod with a simple squirt of lemon juice, but topping the Easy Baked Cod with the olive relish makes it more in tune with adult taste buds. Pairing it with a good Paso Albariño white wine also makes this grownup happy! More on the wine in a minute; first a few quick notes on preparation.

Making Easy Baked Cod

To make Easy Baked Cod, in addition to the ingredients listed, you will need:

• 2 bowls large enough to dredge the pieces of cod fillet
• 1 smaller bowl for the relish
• 1 baking sheet, lined with aluminum foil

You start by getting the ingredients set up to make the cod coating, which features panko breadcrumbs as a primary ingredient. One bowl is for the dried ingredients, the other for the olive oil.

Have the baking sheet ready to point the cod right on after you’ve dredged the pieces in the olive oil and dried ingredients.

Make the olive relish while the cod bakes. Note that pounding larger parts of the cod to make the pieces fairly even helps with consistent cooking of the fish.

You want the cod cooked through and to flake easily. Larger pieces might take a few minutes more than the 20 I call for here, but don’t overcook the fish!

For another good fish recipe with a similar topping, see our Salmon with Lemon Olive Relish recipe! And for another cod recipe, try our Roast Cod with Herb Pesto.

Paso Robles Wine Pairing

We have been enjoying sampling a lineup of very good wine from Paso Robles, California. I thought our Easy Baked Cod would be a perfect evening for opening our Albariño from Paso, as it tends to be a very seafood friendly wine.

The 2016 Barr Estate Albariño ($17, 12.7% ABV) definitely proved to be a good pairing for the baked cod. This Albariño has a subtle nose, with hints of the sea, setting up the seafood pairing. On the palate, kiwi fruit with racing acidity, and mineral undertones. Light bodied with a medium finish.

The fruit and acidity were great elements to go along with the briny olive relish, with its lemon and salty flavors. I definitely give this pairing an A!

We most closely associate the Albariño grape with Spain, particularly the Rias Baixas region. I haven’t had a lot from California. I would say I liked this one from Barr Estate better than other California Albariño I recall trying. This Paso Albariño has a bit more fruit and weight than you might get on a Spanish version, but still has that strong sense of the sea that makes it such a great seafood wine.

If you’re looking for some pairings with classic Spanish Albariño, check out our Rias Baixas Albariño with Summer Party Nibbles article.

Barr Estate is a small family owned and operated winery established in 2007. Natives of New Orleans, Tealy and Greg Barr started a second career growing grapes and making affordable, high quality wines.

The grapes for this wine are grown in the Geneseo District of the Paso Robles AVA. The tasting sheet, which I looked at after sampling, notes the terroir and temperature are similar parts of Rias Baixas. Definitely can see the similarity in taste!

The fermentation and maceration are done in stainless steel, under strict temperature control.

For more good wine pairings like this, check out our Pairings with Paso Wines from A to Z article!

Recipe card

Easy Baked Cod with Olive Relish

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5 from 1 review

Easy baked cod recipe is delicious topped with an olive lemon relish! Even better with a nice Albariño from Paso Robles.

• Author: Cooking Chat
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins
• Total Time: 30 mins
• Yield: 4 servings 1x
• Category: main
• Method: baking
• Cuisine: seafood

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the cod:

• 1 lb or so cod fillet, rinsed and patted dry
• ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp Parmesan cheese
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp dried basil
• pinch salt
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ tsp mustard (optional)

For the olive relish

• 6 green olives, pitted and chopped
• 1 ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tsp champagne vinegar (other vinegar OK to substitute)
• handful of fresh parsley
• couple grinds of fresh black pepper

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Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine the dry ingredients in a medium to large bowl–panko breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, basil and salt. Pour the 2 tablespoons olive oil into a separate medium to large bowl.
3. Take one piece of the cod fillet, dip both sides in the olive oil and let the excess oil drip off. Dredge the cod in the dried ingredient coating, both sides, and place on a baking tray lined with aluminum foil. Repeat with the remaining pieces of cod.
4. Place the cod in the oven, and bake for about 20 minutes.
5. As the cod bakes, make the olive relish. Combine the olives, 1.5 tablespoons olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar in a small bowl. Set aside.
6. Check the cod for for doneness at 20 minutes– the cod should be cooked through, white flesh and flake easily. Some pieces might need a bit more time than others. If so, removed the cooked pieces to a platter and let the other pieces cook for a few more minutes. Don’t overcook the fish!
7. Plate the cod, and serve topped with the olive relish. Enjoy!
8. After the cod has been rinsed and patted dry, place it on a cutting board and cut into 3 roughly equal sized pieces. If some pieces are thicker than others, pound the thicker ones to get the pieces to be relatively equal size.

Notes

• A good size cod fillet of 1 pound or more will likely have some parts that are pretty thick, and some thinner parts. Cutting the fillet into a few pieces helps ensure it all gets cooked right, cooked through but not overcooked! Pounding the thicker pieces to make them all similar size helps with even cooking.
• I didn’t use mustard in making the cod, but have done so cooking haddock with a similar preparation. So if feel free to use a bit of mustard here if you like that flavor.

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Want to try another cod recipe? How about our New England Beans and Cod!