As the cook in my family that took over my Nonnas recipes, I cannot seem to find anything from her on how to prepare Baccala, in the Tuscan style. In our family it was prepared on Christmas Eve.

For those of you who do not know what Baccala is,it is salt dried cod, very typical of many European cultures where in the earlier times freezing food was not an option.


If any of you have any insight on recipes, I would love to hear them.

Thanks in advance
John Ferrari

www.italiantownandcountry.com

Lorenza de'Medici's Tuscan recipe is as follows
2 lb (900gm) salt cod
2 1/2 lb Swiss card (silverbeet) or spinach trimmed
1/3 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves chopped
pinch of ground dried chili
10 oz tomatoes, peeled and chopped

Prepare the cod (soak for 24 hours in water in refrigerator, changing water every 6 hours or so)

Blanch the chard in boiling water for 1 minute.
Drain well and chop.

Drain the cod, remove bones and skin, dry with absorbent towl, cut into large pieces.

In heavy saucepan, warm olive oil over moderate heat.
Add garlic and cod.
Sprinkle with chili.
Cook till golden and then turn and cook the other side till golden (5 min total)


Add chard and tomatoes.
Lower heat, cover and heat till liquid evaporates and thich sauce forms (20 min)

Serve

That version is called Inzimino, usually used for squid.
although I cook the sauce on the side, and then lay the lightly fried fish in to steam.

Another version is called Alla Livornese..
same idea but:
saute 1 chopped leek, in olive oil until almost golden.
Add one sliced garlic clove, and a pinch of red chili flakes, let cook for a minute or so.
Add tomato sauce and let the sauce cook down.
Lay the lightly fried Baccala in the sauce and let steam.

Judy
Divina Cucina

Florence
Everyone should try being Italian at least once a day!!

The best way to prepare baccalà is Mantecato.

Bepi was going to leave us just hanging.....
I found this listed as the recipe used at Harry's Bar in Venice.

Cooking with Nonna

Sofia was family, and a famous cook even among my parents' friends for her ability to create very sophisticated dishes with the most common ingredients.

One of the dishes I recall very well is baccalà mantecato, a cream of dried salt cod, which she served in puff pastry shells as though it was salmon or some other noble fish; not only its appearance was elegant, its flavor was truly outstanding. I remember one evening when Carlo, a noted editor, publisher, and art critic, got up from the table to congratulate Sofia on her famous baccalà, a dish that even his well-known cook was unable to make as well as she did.

I was in Venice in 1986 for Carnevale, dressed as Dante Alighieri, roaming the even more unreal streets of the city. When it was lunch time I went to Harry's Bar. My friends insisted that I share a plate of baccalà mantecato with them, but I said I did not want it: the only baccalà I liked was Sofia's, and she had not left us her recipe. My friends and Signor Cipriani himself convinced me to try it, and once I tasted it, I was converted. Here is the recipe for baccalà mantecato as Harry's Bar makes it.

Creamed Dried Salt Cod - Baccalà Mantecato



* 1/2 pound stockfish or salt cod, skinned and boned
* 4 cups whole milk
* 1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley
* 3 anchovy filets, chopped
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
* salt
* freshly ground black pepper


Soak the fish overnight in a large bowl of cold water in the refrigerator. In the morning, break the fish up with your fingers, drain it, cover it with cold water again and soak for another 4 hours. Drain. Heat the milk to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan. Add the fish, turn down the heat, cover the pot, and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the fish to a colander and let it drain until dry. Reserve the milk. While it is still warm, put the fish into a large bowl. Add the parsley, anchovies, and garlic, and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until the fish is broken up and the ingredients are well combined. Beat in the olive oil in a slow, steady stream and continue to beat for about 10 minutes, until the mixture has the consistency of firm mashed potatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Beat in as much of the reserved milk as you need to make the mixture creamy but still solid. The texture should be distinctly grainy. Do not try to make baccalà mantecato in a food processor, which will turn it into a purée and ruin its distinctive texture. Serve the baccalà warm with a wedge of polenta, as they do at Harry's Bar, or in baked puff pastry shells as Sofia did years ago. Serves 6 as a first course

Great Gavin, the Harry's bar Baccalà is the best you can eat.
I suggest to drink a Tocai Friulano from Mario Schiopetto.

Every winter my little cafe hangout makes on Fridays three baccala` recipes. I only like one of them, but I can never remember which one so I have the sampler version and leave the bad ones. It has made me fear baccala` where you must eat what you get. Last week in the Veneto, I was told baccala` alla Vicentina was THE local dish and I didn't even try it.
On the other hand I did some serious damage to the Friuli Tocai resources, both red and white. Nice, light, easy to pair wine, that.
It will not, however, replace Prosecco. If Vicenza just weren't so darned new it would be a fave, because Prosecco is so often the house wine.

Dear Gavin, a great way to eat Baccalà:
Buy Stoccafisso (Stockfish) Ragno (the best) and leave it 3 days in fresh water. (change it 3 times per day)

Prepare the mantacato as per your recipe, but dryer, than prepare Ravioli and fill them with the baccalà.

The sauce:
Heat some olive oil, put garlic and some peperoncino (not too much, otherwise you cannot enjoy the taste of baccalà) , than chopped red tomatoes. Cook that for 10 minutes, than add fresh parsley.

Buon appetito
Sorry, my written english is bad but the recipes are normally good

bepi

If you don't have time for all the soaking, etc, you can buy ready made baccalà mantecato in jars. I'm sure the Harry's Bar stuff is a lot nicer, but we bought a pretty decent jar in a fishmongers just next to the Rialto fish market last December. Very nice as a simple starter: just spread it onto bread or see how much you can balance on the end of a breadstick.

Salt cod never seems to have established itself here in the UK. But the country which has taken salt cod to its heart has to be Portugal, where they like to say that they have 365 different ways of preparing bacalhau, so that you can eat it every day of the year!

Jonathan

quote:

---

Salt cod never seems to have established itself here in the UK

---

I think it may depend on what community you belong to. Certainly you can buy salt cod all over the place in London, often in Asian shops but also others. My husband also remembers that when his family moved inland from Liverpool to Oldham his grandmother used to send salt cod through the post. I assume she thought that they wouldn't be able to buy fish once they'd left Liverpool. The postman always knew when it was "fish" day.

Thanks Bepi, I'll definitely make the ravioli. Made my first ravioli this last Sunday (Walnut, Ricotta and Gorgonzola, with burnt butter and mint sauce).

There was a book called "Cod" published some three years ago. It's the history of cod fishing around the Atlantic. It would appear that the driving force in the middle ages was the observance of fish on Fridays, plus an increasing number of religious days when only fish could be eaten (I seem to remember that at some point there was something like 100 or more days a year). Either salt or air dried cod became the only practical way to supply such large volumes of fish. There is even evidence to suggest that it was the Portuguese who discovered the Cod fishing grounds off New England, but didn't reveal their discovery to the rest of Europe for fear that they would be overwhelmed by their English and Dutch competitors.

Thanks, all. I've enjoyed some variation of salt cod in many places (Italy, France, Portugal)-- but have never been brave enough to attempt it at home. Somehow, the look of the package of fish frightens me off. I can easily buy the dried cod in Asian, Hispanic, and Italian markets in the Boston area. Does anyone have a recommendation of a good brand available in the U.S.?

Amy in MA
Amy's House Exchange

Amy, if you have the possibility to buy Cod in an Italian store in Boston, it is definitely the same that you could find here in Italy. If the owners of the shop are italian they should know Stoccafisso Ragno.

Is stoccafisso the same thing as baccalà ? What I think of as stockfish here is a translucent gooey piece of cod which has been cured in (I believe) saltpetre whereas baccalà is board hard and can be used as a substitute hammer

Humn. In The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, Stoccafisso is defined as air dried but not salted small cod. (From a Gernan phrase meaning fish as stiff as a stick!)Baccala is defined as salted dried cod.

So, those of you who have actually stared down a piece of the stuff on your kitchen counter-- which have you used?

Amy in MA
Amy's House Exchange

GB Baccalà is dry salty cod, and stoccafisso comeing from the German Stockfish, is dryed cod, and cam be used like an hammer.
The baccalà is not as hard as the stoccafisso.

OK. Yes, I was confusing Lutefish which starts out life as stockfish before being severely mistreated. Thanks

see a couple of lutefish links

Link 1

Link 2

and, yes - it is that bad

My parents and grandparents (100% Swedish) made lutefisk every Christmas but I could never force myself to eat it. It was also anointed with vinegar which didn't help.

BTW, I have made the excellent baccala montecato recipe several times to considerable praise. It can be copied, I believe, from the Saveur site.

Thank you all for the extensive input, I knew I could count on this group for ideas. So I think I will do several and put them on the table as antipasti.
I will give a review on which was best!

Mille grazie a tutti!!

John Ferrari

www.italiantownandcountry.com

With all due respect to Italian cooking and to the wonderful bacala I had at Buca di Sant'Antonio in Lucca, the masters of bacala cooking are the Portuguese. One must try at least one Portuguese restaurant, or recipe, before arriving to any conclusions.

Doru

Welcome to the message board Bepi!! How interesting to find you here - in a Baccala thread!!

Bepi is the partner of Sacha, and they own the vacation rental that we stayed in last September - the wonderful house in Cetona!Link to my review.

Your written English may not be perfect, but your spoken English is. Bepi and Sacha were wonderful hosts for our Cetona trip. By the time we had finished checking in, we knew where everything was in the house, had all the local shops pointed out to us and were introduced to the owner of the excellent local restaurant. A nice introduction to a new place!

Pauline from Slow Travelers

Stoccafisso air dried not salted cod.
Baccala is salted dried cod

Usually for cooking you don’t put stoccafisso in the water before. You “flake” it with a fork (very little pieces). And after cook with chopped vegetables, tomato and oil.

Another 2 ways for cooking Baccalà :
1- Prepare the cod, about one k.(soak for 24 hours in water, changing water every 6 hours or so)
Drain the cod, remove bones and skin, dry well with absorbent towl, cut into small pieces.
Put the pieces in a jar (where light cannot enter) with (chopped, but not too much) one onion, few garlic, a little parsley, a few of red chilli pepper (if you like) some capers, a few of salt. Put on oil and white vinegar ( 50-50) till all is covered. Use apple-vinegar. If you use wine-vinegar, if is too strong, 40 vinegar and 10 water.

Close well the jar. Every 2-3 days shake a little. After 20 days you can eat.
Is good about for 60 days.

2- After having soaked ( 12 hours is enough) and dried, cut in large pieces without removing skin, put on a few bread-crumbs and grill. When grilled remove skin, put salt, if necessary, and good olive oil on.

Or, but this is only for “strong mountain men”, get out the salt and grill as it is. After remove skin, chop it with the fork and put in a lake of olive oil. With 300 g. of baccalà, 1liter of oil 3 k. of bread and 5 litres of wine 10 people can have a meal. But is terrible, because there is a lot of salt in the meat (sometimes I like to eat it so). Was the way used from workers that made cool on the mountains, one hundred years ago. You eat bread, salt and oil with the smell of baccalà.

Carlo's Apartments in Florence

Pauline, buongiorno,
I share with Sacha the passion for the food, but I admit, I'm jealous because she is very thin; maybe is the wine.

I think the board is a nice opportunity to meet new friends.

baci

I always wonder how "foodies" stay so thin too! I think Sacha must be always running up and down those Cetona hills!

Pauline from Slow Travelers

Hello, Bepi! We met at the cafe in Montechiello in September; how I wish I were there now. Say hello to Sacha for me.
Yrs, Robert