Tag Archives: stock fish

Baccalà mantecato (without milk and/or cream)

It is not a difficult recipe, but it is the traditional one, and so is a bit labor intensive. Thou, you may bail on tradition and choose to use an electric mixer of course… 😉

Ingredients

  • 400 gr. of frozen cod (or fresh, whole, cleaned cod or stock fish; let salted stock fish soak for 24 hours).
  • About 1.5 cup of sunflower seeds oil and about 0.25 cup of Italian extra virgin olive oil (fruity better). You can use all olive oil or just less or more oil, it’s up to you and your taste.

Optional

  • 1 clove garlic, finely minced.
  • A handful of (Italian) parsley, stems removed, chopped.

Preparation
Wrap the fish in an aluminium foil and bring it to a medium boil in a large pot of water for about 40 minutes (don’t overcook, however).
If you used a whole fish, remove the skin, head, tail, and de-bone.
Place the fish meat in a heavy mixing bowl, add some salt, and beat/whip with a wooden mallet or other heavy utensil into small mince-sized pieces. Continue to whip/beat energetically, drizzling the oil “a filo,” that is, “by thread,” little by little, until it becomes a whipped, white paste (some small pieces of fish are likely to remain, however; this is normal).
Add parsley, minced garlic, adjust the salt, and fresh pepper to taste.
Garnish with remaining parsley. Serve on fresh or grilled bread, or grilled polenta.