Boiled stockfish, Venetian-style

Baccalà conzo

Boiled stockfish, Venetian-style Traditional recipe of Veneto and Friuli

Boiled stockfish according to the Venetian tradition, the photo shows stockfish dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and parsley — Boiled stockfish

yeld for 4

500 g (1.1 lb) soaked stockfish
1 dried bay leaf
2 cloves
150 ml (5 1/4fl oz - 2/3C) dry white wine
Some sprigs flat-leaf parsley
1 lemon juice
1 garlic clove
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt

Time:
preparation: 20 minutes plus cooling time
cooking: about 30 minutes
total time: about 2 hours
Difficulty:
easy recipe
Nutrition Facts (amount per serving):
Calories: 165 (kCal) 9 % GDA (*) - 690 (kJ)
Protein: 22.1 (g) 45 % GDA
Total fat: 8.5 (g) 13 % GDA
Total carbohydrate: 0.0 (g)
Sugars: 0.0 (g)

Boiled stockfish, Venetian-style ("baccalà conzo" in Italian) is a typical recipe of Veneto and Friuli. Veneto and Friuli are in the north of Italy.
Soaked stockfish is boiled in water flavored with cloves, bay leaf and white wine. Then it is dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, parsley and salt.
This is a simple-to-do recipe and it is served in Italy in a traditional Christmas dinner menu based on fish. But you can prepare this recipe with boiled stockfish all year.
Here's the recipe!

Cook the stockfish. Run the stockfish under cold water and put in a pot. Cover with cold water and add the cloves, bay leaf and white wine. Bring to the boil, reduce the flame and keep on cooking for about 20 minutes. Let the stockfish cool in its cooking water.

Prepare the dressing. Wash the parsley, pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper and chop together with the garlic clove.
Put the chopped parsley and garlic in a bowl. Add the lemon juice and olive oil. Beat hard with a fork and put apart.

The last step. Remove the stockfish from its cooking water, pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper to remove the excess of water. Then remove its skin and bones if necessary. Flake off its meat and transfer to a bowl. Dress it with the sauce. Taste to determine if the dish needs added salt.
Your dish is ready!

Note

- Buy stockfish redy-to-cook (soaked) for a quicker and easier preparation.
- You can't prepare this dish ahead because stockfish gets dry.
- Generally we don't use garlic, especially in this case (it should be used raw!). We think its flavor is too intense and covers the other ingredients. In this recipe we substitute it with fresh or dried chives according to the season.
Some people are used to flavor the olive oil with a whole garlic clove for at least a day and then dress the boiled stockfish with it.
- We modified the original recipe for another detail: the oil amount. In fact the traditional dose is 100 ml (3 1/2fl oz). It's too much according the modern healthy eating.
- Serve this dish accompanied with polenta for an extraordinary one-plate meal or start a typical Italian menu with it together with other seafood or authentic Italian appetizers.

What's the right wine ?

Soave Superiore (a white wine of Veneto-Italy) is perfect for this cod dish. If you serve it as starter you can accompany it with Prosecco.