Salt Cod with Grilled Vegetables
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 90 minutes, but salted cod needs to be soaked for 24 hours
Rather strange that a salted codfish dish has its origins in Venice, a city where fresh fish abounds. But sailing ships used to deliver salt to Norway and returned with dried and salted codfish. A great staple to use on long voyages, hence its popularity with seafaring nations before refrigeration became common. In Italy the dish is called Baccalà con Verdure Grigliati.
We use dried, salted codfish (Italian: baccalà) for this dish, not the dried, unsalted one which is called "stoccafisso".
Ingredients:
Salted Codfish Purée:
- 500gr (1 lb) salted codfish, which has been soaked for 24 hours
- 1/2 liter (2 cups) milk
- 2 whole garlic cloves, peeled
- Salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup Italian parsley
- 125 ml (about 1/2 cup) extra virgin olive oil
Grilled Vegetables:
- 2 medium red peppers, seeded and quartered
- 2 medium sized zucchini, sliced lengthwise into 1 cm (1/2 inch) slices
- 1 large onion, quartered and layers pulled apart
- 1 medium eggplant, sliced lengthwise into 1 cm (1/2 inch) slices
- 6 tbsp (about 80 ml) of extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
- 8 oil cured black olives for garnish
Preparation:
Grilled Vegetables: In a bowl mix olive oil with salt and pepper. Set aside. Brush vegetables, both sides, with the olive oil-mix. Heat an iron grill pan over high heat and grill the vegetables until they are nicely brown with speckles on both sides. Keep them warm on a plate. If you do not own a grill pan, use the grill in your oven, grilling vegetables on middle/upper shelf (about 15cm distance from the grill) for about 10 minutes, turning once.
Salted Codfish: In the meantime simmer salted cod in the milk over low heat for about 10 minutes. Drain codfish over a bowl and save about 150 ml of cooking liquid. Let it cool a bit. Flake the cod with your hands, looking for any leftover fish bones. Warm olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and codfish. Mash codfish with the aid of a handblender or a fork. Add just enough milk to give it a purée consistency. Taste for salt and pepper.
To serve: Arrange grilled vegetables on individual plates. Spoon small portions of codfish purée over it. Drizzle with olive oil, use a bit of freshly ground pepper and garnish each plate with 2 black olives.