We had three bottles of Syrah to drink: ’03 Cornas from France, ’00 Hardy’s from Australia, and ’02 Ridge from here in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I wanted to make a special dinner for our cousin’s birthday, but we don’t really eat much meat so I had to find something involving fish that would go with Syrah. I think this worked!

This recipe is for 6 servings.

1/4-1/2 cup chopped shallots
1 head frisée, roughly chopped
1/2 c. chicken stock

Sauté the shallots in olive oil until soft. Add the chicken stock and reduce by half. Add the frisée, and briefly toss to coat with the shallots and olive oil. Remove it from the heat and put a lid on it to keep it warm and wilt the frisée. Set aside.

1 cup red wine (I used Syrah to match what we’d be drinking with the meal)
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 stick butter

Sauté shallots in olive oil until soft. Add red wine and bring to boil. Boil until it’s reduced to a syrupy sauce. Turn off heat and whisk in 1/2-3/4 of a stick of butter, one pat at a time.

2 1/2 pounds center cut salmon, cut into six pieces
12 slices prosciutto
1/4 cup minced parsley
1/4 cup minced thyme

Mix the parsley and thyme together. Press the herb mixture into the salmon fillets. Wrap two pieces of prosciutto around each of the herbed salmon fillets.

Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. My 12 inch copper pan was big enough to do three salmon fillets at a time. Place salmon fillets in the pan with a little olive oil and cook about three minutes on each side.

To plate, put one tablespoon of red wine sauce on the plate. Top with the wilted endive and shallots. Place the fish on top of that. Squeeze a little lemon juice on the fish. Garnish with something pretty and green, I used micro arugula.

Voilà… delicious!! It was so good in fact, I forgot to take a picture before I dug in! Oops!!