Fish and cheese are two of the most delicious foods out there, but they don’t always go together. Is it ever okay to eat them together? Fish and cheese are both high in protein, low in fat, and rich in nutrients. They also taste great. However, pairing these two foods can be tricky. When should you serve a piece of blue cheese with your salmon dinner?
Some claim that serving cheese and fish together is one of the biggest faux pas you could make when it comes to cooking. Yet there are plenty of cases of fish and cheese being paired together. You might find a blue cheese sauce for a portion of seafood pasta.
We completely understand not risking pairing fish and cheese together, unless you are absolutely sure they go together. So, here are some times when it is completely fine to pair fish with cheese.
Making A Creamy Sauce For Fish
There is nothing quite like serving a good piece of fish with a creamy sauce. Sure you could stick with a basic béchamel sauce and spice it up with garlic, but do you know what is even better than that? Adding Parmesan.
It is completely acceptable to add a creamy Parmesan sauce to your fish! One of the biggest problems with adding fish and cheese together is that they are both dominant flavors. This means they are competing when you eat them rather than complementing each other.
However, when you add a creamy sauce to fish you are amplifying the flavors of the dish. So at this point, sprinkling a bit of Parmesan into the sauce enhances the creaminess. So if you want to serve fish for dinner, then you can enhance all the flavors by adding a creamy Parmesan sauce.
Making Fish Cakes
Have you ever had a melt-in-the-middle fish cake? We have and it is absolutely delicious! Fishcakes that melt in the middle wouldn’t be the same without having the gooey cheese center. They are a staple dinner or lunch.
In fact, it is so acceptable to have fish cakes with a cheese center that they are sold at the grocery store. Of course, the type of cheese you use makes all the difference whether this is an acceptable combination.
Since there is already so much flavor in fish cakes without cheese, you don’t want to add a cheese that overpowers the fish in the fish cakes. That’s why if you add blue cheese, it might not be ok to pair fish and cheese in this dish.
However, haddock and cheddar have been popular combinations for fish cakes. The cheddar is mild enough that it doesn’t take away the other flavors in the fish cake or overpower the fish. So as long as you are using a type of mild cheese, adding cheese to your fish cakes makes for an amazing treat to eat.
Making A Fish and Cheese Melt
Has anyone ever heard of a tuna melt before? Tuna melts are a very popular dish. It is the perfect dish to show how well fish and cheese can go together.
In fact, tuna is a fish that goes surprisingly well with cheese. When it comes to a classic melt, the cheese is a staple part of it. Hence is called a melt. And since cheese is such a great partner for some fish, it should come as no surprise that tuna also pairs well with cheese.
The key to making a successful tuna melt is choosing a cheese that has a similar flavor profile to the tuna itself. If you choose something too strong, then it will overpower the taste of the tuna. Instead, look for a cheese that complements the tuna.
Some examples include mozzarella, provolone, cheddar, Swiss, Havarti, etc. These cheeses will work really well with the flavor of the tuna.
Making Pizza With Fish and Cheese
For some, pizza is nothing without the cheese. And there may be controversial pairings on pizza – pineapple on pizza – but one is for sure, fish is not one of them. There are so many variations of seafood pizza. These seafood pizzas all have cheese on them. So whilst this combination might anger some Italians, it is one that is loved by many.
A famous example would be having anchovies on pizza. Anchovies are salty and umami flavored. They are a great addition to pizza because they bring out the saltiness of the crust. But they also bring out the umami flavor from the tomatoes which is what gives the pizza its character. This combination works perfectly.
But when it comes to pairing fish with cheese, there are two types of cheese that you could consider: soft and hard. Hard cheese like Parmesan and Romano are best used on pizzas where the cheese needs to hold up against the heat of the oven.
Soft cheese like mozzarella and ricotta are better suited to dishes where the cheese won’t need to stand up to high temperatures.
Soft cheese is more common than hard cheese on pizza. In fact, most people think of pizza as having only soft cheese on it. Hence, it is important to know which kind of cheese to use when making a pizza.
Making Pasta
Fish is also paired with cheese in pasta dishes. One of the most popular is macaroni cheese. Macaroni cheese is made by mixing white sauce (which is just flour and milk) with cheese. Then you cook it until it becomes creamy.
A lot of people have started to enhance the simple macaroni and cheese recipe by adding seafood to it. The idea behind doing this is to add another dimension to the dish.
Another fish and cheese pasta combination is tuna in a tuna pasta bake. This is a baked pasta dish where the pasta is mixed into a tomato-based sauce. Then, the pasta mixture is mixed with tuna. The cheese here is usually Parmesan or mozzarella.
Both these kinds of cheese complement the tuna.
Greek Cheese With Fish
Feta is such an amazing cheese that goes with most foods. Salmon is a fish that goes perfectly with feta. You could have it in a salad or even have the feta as a crust for baked salmon.
In fact, when you mix the feta with tomatoes and other vegetables, it adds a nice creaminess to the dish. This makes it perfect for serving alongside baked fish.
Feta is a cheese that adds creaminess to the dish. It is a great cheese to pair with fish because it doesn’t overpower the dish. Anchovies and feta go really well together. These could be paired in a salad, on top of pizza, or even in pasta.
The creaminess of the feta cancels out the saltiness of the anchovy. This makes them a fantastic combination.
When You Are Making Mousse
Fish mousse might seem like a strange combination, especially when we are all so used to enjoying sweet mousse as a dessert.
However, it might not sound so odd when we say salmon mousse. Salmon mousse is a dish that is usually served as an entrée. The basis of any good salmon mousse is the type of cream cheese.
That’s right. Salmon mousse is made with salmon and cream cheese. In fact, this isn’t the only time salmon and cream cheese have been paired together.
Cream cheese and smoked salmon sandwiches, cream cheese and smoked salmon bagels, or even cream cheese and smoked salmon on crackers are all popular combinations.
Cream cheese has a creamy but mild flavor which allows the salmon flavor to shine through. This makes this fish and this cheese the perfect pairing.
What Cheeses Go Well With Fish?
Cheese can make food taste much better. There are many kinds of cheese that go well with fish. Some of the most common ones include:
- Mozzarella
- Parmesan
- Ricotta
- Gorgonzola
- Asiago
- Blue Cheese
- Brie
- Goat Cheese
- Roquefort
There are many types of cheese that go well with fish, but some of the best ones are listed above. All of these cheeses are rich and flavorful. They give your meal a lot more depth.
If you want to serve something delicious at dinner, try adding one of these kinds of cheese to your fish dish in a sauce, as a crust, or even on pizza!
Conclusion
When you first try to think of a cheese and fish combination, it might seem impossible to do so. Though when you really look into it, fish and cheese is a combination that is quite popular. When you combine the two, you get a very tasty result.
Whether you’re making a pizza, a baked potato, a baked pasta, or even a pie, there are plenty of ways to enjoy cheese and fish.
Hopefully, this article will help you find new ideas about how to use cheese and fish. We hope that you enjoyed reading our article and learning about this topic. Please share it with others who may also benefit from it. Thank you!
