Salted cod is used for the main dish of the Christmas eve dinner in many Southern Italian regions
ingredienti per 4 porzioni (costo circa 8 € pp)
- 4 filets of salted cod
- 12 pomodorini
- 2 small leeks
- 2 spicchi d´ aglio
- 20 olive nere
- Olio d´ oliva EV
- Foglie di basilico
- Breadcrumbs
- Pepe nero macinato grosso
- Sale
Some people think that the salted cod is a cheap alternative of fresh fish. Wrong.
There are excellent Norwegian cods, which offer us thick, tender and juicy filets, with no bones at all, ideal for holiday meals, such as the Christmas eve dinner.
I remind you that in Naples and other parts of southern Italy, the local Christmas meals are made of fish and not of meat and the salted cod often is used for the main dish.
Let´s prepare one.
We first wash the cod’s pieces under running water to remove the salt which is found on the exterior part. We then put the cod in a large container with plenty of cold water and we leave it there, in the fridge, for at least 48 hours, changing the water every approximately 12 hours. The water has always to be very cold.
When the cod is well desalted we continue our preparation. We must be sure that the fish not salty at all, so we cut a very small piece of fishand we boil it for a minute or two, just to check if it is well desalted.
After this procedure we can keep the cod in the fridge for 3 days.
We put the olives in cold water to remove their excessive saltiness. We leave them in the water for at least one hour. I didn’t remove the olives pit as I preferred have them wholes for visual reasons, but if you like you can pit them, but using already pitted commercial olives is forbidden.
In a skillet we add some olive oil. We preheat it and we add the white parts of the leeks, cut in thin slices. We cool the leeks for about 10 minutes, adding a spoon of water, when required. We add the garlic and we continue gently frying 5 more minutes. We add the basil leaves, black pepper and some salt.
We put the cod filets in a pot with water, brought at a temperature of 80 to 85 C. We put the lid, we turn the heat off and we leave the cod pieces for about 5 minutes. Remember that the cod can be also eaten raw, so don´t exaggerate by overcooking it.
We preheat the grill of our oven.
In a roasting pan we put the cherry tomatoes, well greased with olive oil and we roast them for about 5 minutes.
In the same roasting pan we add some olive oil and we arrange the cod filets. We spread leeks and garlic above them and we sprinkle with the breadcrumbs.
We gratinate for about 2 minutes, we add the olives and we continue for 1 more minute.
