Pan Fried Skate Wings with Prosecco and Caper Sauce

Pan fried skate wings are a great easy way to “up” your fish cooking game and these come with a delicious prosecco and caper butter sauce.

There is no reason to be intimidated by cooking fresh fish, these ray wings are pretty much foolproof and cook in well under 30 minutes!

Pan Fried Ray Wings.

I adore this recipe, when my wife and I decided to return to the UK a fair old while ago, this was one of the dishes that was on my list to cook first!

When I first pan fried skate wings, I remember feeling all very “smart and clever”, it was many many years ago.

I guess I got caught up in the lie that cooking fish was somehow difficult. It really isn’t!

I have a host of simple fish dishes that look like they take way more effort than they actually do.

Recipes like pan-fried hake with chorizo, my fancy sea bass curry, baked hake with romesco sauce, a show-stopping pan-fried halibut with clams and my delicious sea bream fillet with a lemon parsley crumb are real stunners that are deceptively simple.

You do of course have to be careful not to overcook and get your heat right, and you certainly can’t walk away and read a book.

But this delicious piece of fish cooks in around 10 minutes and takes maybe 5 to prepare for the uninitiated. Even less once you have done it once or twice.

The caper butter sauce is a super simple emulsion of reduced prosecco and butter. It takes roughly the same amount of time as the fish to make.

Just before serving stir through some fresh parsley and some capers for one of my all-time favourite things to eat!

If you like this recipe you will love my classic French pan-fried sole meuniere recipe!

Frequently Asked Questions.

Are skate and ray wings the same?

Yes and no… Skate has been fished to endangered status, what we buy now as skate is ray, a member of the shark family.

There are subtle differences but none that make this dish anything other than stunning.

Do I have to use prosecco?

No, you can use champagne if you like lol!

Any old fizzy white wine is great in this recipe, but you could swap it out for a nice crisp dry white wine too.

Why do you say to add the butter in three parts?

Whisking the butter in stages makes the sauce much more likely to form an emulsion. If you throw all of the butter in at once you will likely not get a sauce that has combined.

My sauce has split, is there anything that I can do?

Yes, stick it in a blender or grab a stick blender and give it a blitz. It will come back together in a heartbeat.

Serving Suggestions.

I served this simple skate wing recipe with some equally simple roasted tenderstem broccoli.

But it would be great with either my garlic green beans or air fryer asparagus.

Of course, potatoes are a good option too, I would personally go for some quick and simple fried potatoes, roasted Parmentier potatoes or straw potatoes.

But something like these crushed new potatoes would be great too. As would duchess potatoes if you wanted to go real retro and delicious!

Equipment Used

I only name-check brands of equipment if I think they make a material difference to a recipe. If you have any questions feel free to ask them in the comment section below the recipe.

• Stovetop.
• 30cm or 12″ frying pan.
• 15cm or 6″ saucepan.
• Weighing scales and or measuring cups and spoons.
• Chopping board.
• Kitchen knife or cleaver, I use an old beaten-up knife to cut the bone.
• Kitchen mallet or rolling pin.
• Whisk.