Story and Tradition behind Baccala

Story and Tradition behind Baccala

• jencathen 17 years ago
  "The story goes that in 1269 the inhabitants of Vicenza who were trying to assault the Castle of Montebello, defended by the Veronese, thus answered to the guards ordering them to stop: how nice! We bring polenta (maize porridge) and baccalà. And soon afterward the gluttonous Veronese flung the gate wide..."
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• jencathen 17 years ago said:
  More than four centuries ago (1432) an expedition under the Venetian captain Pietro Querini's orders was shipwrecked in Rost, one of the most remote among the Lofoten Islands, off Norway, and there, owing to a peculiar long-term effect as a result of that adventurous landing, people still cherish Vicenza deep in their hearts. The credit for such popularity should be taken by the stockfish (or dried cod) Captain Querini brought back home with him and which inspired some enlightened gourmets with the creation, by previous treatment, of the dish called baccalà, to be best served with polenta. The inhabitants of Vicenza looked upon stockfish as a an alternative to the expensive fresh fish which, moreover, went bad quite soon. In October 1580, at the beginning of the Palladian Era, Michel de Montaigne arrives in Vicenza; Vicenza appears to him as "a big town.... full of noble palaces", but nothing more than this In his famous "Journal de Voyage en Italie", he leaves poor notes about Vicenza but his literary enthusiasm revives only when writing about a meal including the famous " national dish" of the inhabitants of Vicenza: baccalà.
  
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