Ingredients

How to make it

  • Traditional Way:
  • Soak the dried cod, already beaten, in cold water, changing the latter every 4 hours for 2-3 days.
  • Skin some of the dried cod, split the fish lengthwise, pick out fish-bone and all the bones. Cut it into square pieces, possibly the same size.
  • Slice the onions finely, brown them with oil in a small frying pan.
  • Get the salt out of boneless anchovies, chop them and add them to the onions.
  • Finally, after putting out the fire, add some minced parsley.
  • Dredge the stockfish pieces in flour, sprinkle them with a sauce made of onions - browned in oil - and lay them one by the other in a terra cotta or aluminium saucepan or in a pyrex dish ( on the bottom of which some spoonful of the afore-mentioned sauce will be poured in advance.
  • Cover the fish with the rest of the sauce, add the milk, the grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Pour the oil until all the pieces are completely covered, levelling them out. Cook on a very low flame for about four hours and a half, moving every now and then the saucepan in a circle, without ever stirring. The word in Venetian dialect that describes this phase of cooking is "pipare". Only experience will be able to define the exact cooking of dried cod, which may differ in consistency depending on the specimen.
  • Serve it hot with sliced polenta: baccalĂ  alla vicentina is also delicious after a 12-24 hours rest.
  • Easy Method:
  • Follow the same directions as above except you are skipping the 2-3 day soaking of dry cod.
  • This version is very tasty as well and the one I make most often. The traditional way I make if we are having company because I want them to experience the traditional food that is steeped in lore.

Reviews & Comments 5

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  • minni 14 years ago
    Thanks for the recipe. I'm so glad to find it! As a kid, I remember my aunt soaking the cod and the wonderful aromas of the codfish sauce. It was served plate by plate. Each person getting a glop of polenta, then a slab of good "stinky" brick cheese with a heaping serving of the cod fish sauce over the top. I want to try the recipe, BUT am not sure of the "how to's" with soaking cod. I remember it sitting around in a tall bucket, my anut sometimes cursing in Italian about "worms" in the cod fish. What do I need to know about soaking the cod?
    Thanks
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  • jencathen 14 years ago
    Thanks for the comment, but I've never seen cod turn pink while cooking and the stove top works great and heats up kitchen less.
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  • zsean 14 years ago
    Nice! A word to that "pipare" - a necessary way of cooking to avoid that the fish turns pink - cook it in an oven and put the temperature so that it boils very, very, very slowly - it will not stick and if well coverd by the broth, the fish will stay white!

    Its 40 years that I'm in Italy - when it comes to traditional Veneto cuisine my Veneto wife asks me to take over ;-)
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    " It was excellent "
    waterlily ate it and said...
    Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!
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    " It was excellent "
    silverqueen ate it and said...
    Well this is a great post and got my 5 really quick as I am part Italian-Irish and have had this dish exactly as the traditional way I love it to but will try the easy way sometimes.

    Have a great wee-end.

    Queen
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