Passport & Plate - Bacala' alla Vicentina
Italy | Thursday, February 26, 2015 | 5 photos
Ingredients
500g (18 oz) dried and salted Stoccafisso Cod
200 g (7 oz) onions chopped
2 garlic cloves chopped
4 whole Europen anchovies or about 50g (2 oz) of the canned variety, deboned and diced
2 cups Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 ½ cup whole milk
50 g (2 tablespoons) parmigiano reggiano cheese
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
flour, enough to coat the fish
Salt
pepper
How to prepare this recipe:
1. If you can get your hands on dried and salted codfish (aka the real thing), pound the entire fish energetically for a few minutes before soaking it in cold water , changing out the water every 4 hours, for 48 hours. Yes, this includes night time. Never doubt the toughness of old world, European grandmas. Once the fish is reasonably soft, cut lengthwise and remove all bones. Cut the fillets in squares of equal size. Dried cod is tough to find in the suburban US, so frozen cod fillets also work, in which case just thaw as normal, and then cut into squares of equal size. There will be a significant change in taste, but we do what we can.
2. Cook the onion and garlic in 1 cup of the olive oil for 5-10 minutes, then add the sardines and cook for another 5 minutes. The goal here is to make a sort of onion and sardine soffritto. Turn off heat, and add the parsley to the soffritto.
3. Cover the cod pieces in flour, and the place onto a deep pan (terracotta pan works best) over which you have already spread about half the soffritto. Next, pour the rest of the soffritto over the fish.
4. Add milk, cheese, remaining oil, salt, and pepper to the pan, making sure the fish is completely covered. Feel free to add a bit of milk if the fish is not sufficiently covered with what you have.
5. Cook over very low heat (no higher than 90 degrees C) for 6 hours, never stirring the fish, but occasionally turning the pan clockwise. Again, never stir the contents of the pan in any way.
6. Remove the pan from heat, and let sit for 30 minutes. Best, and traditionally, served with a side of polenta.
The story behind this recipe:
Bac(c)ala' alla Vicentina is the taste of my youth. Its unique odor still perfumes my memories of the streets of my hometown, Vicenza, Italy. Though I was born there, my mother is American. Like me, the dish is very Italian, and also isn't. Dried and salted cod doesn’t exactly shout “Mediterranean cuisine,” and yet the Baltic import finds itself at the heart of Vicenza, Italy’s iconic dish. The legend, steeped in myth and yet suspiciously specific, states that in 1431 the Venetian merchant Piero Querini found himself stranded on the Norwegian island of Rost. He was nursed back to health on the local staple of “stockfiss,” cod salted to last through the long winter. For the next few hundred years after his return, the Veneto region of Italy conducted many experiments to assimilate the Northern fish into Italian cuisine inside the many hallowed laboratories of Italian matrons, their kitchens.
Venice itself of course developed the “Mantecato.” Its lesser known neighbor, Vicenza, still a century or two removed from the industrial boom that would define its bourgeois identity, discovered a unique, eponymous recipe. Any foreigner to Palladio’s home will tell you Bacala’ alla Vicentina is an acquired taste, the surest sign of local authenticity. It is a hard dish; the simplicity of the recipe itself does not do justice to the focus and patience required. The fish must be softened and coddled for days, until it is ready to be joined with the other ingredients. The cooking style is perfectly representative of the hard work and mercantile spirit of the Veneto region. It has even inspired an Illuminati-like fraternal society dedicated to spreading an appreciation for the dish worldwide. Many Italians jokingly refer to natives of Vicenza as “magna gatti,” or “cat eaters,” but injected with a heavy dose of truth serum, no one will deny the city’s true, defining dish: Bacala’ alla Vicentina.
