Dried salted cod with potatoes
Ingredients: 800 g of soaked cod, 3 good-sized non-floury potatoes, a quarter of a medium-sized celeriac root, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tbsps of tomato sauce, 1 tbsp of wheat flour, half a glass of dry white wine, a bunch of parsley, extra-virgin olive oil, 50 g of butter, salt, pepper. Until just a few decades ago, cod was a highly affordable variety of fish, which may partly explain how widely used it was in traditional Trentino cooking. The monks from the convent of Terzolas were particularly renowned for their skill in cooking the fish to perfection. This is one simple recipe: leave the cod to soak overnight in cold water, and the next day, boil it until the flesh comes away easily from the bones. Drain the fish, remove the scales and break it up into pieces with your hands. Pour a little oil into a pan, add the pieces of cod, cover with a layer of celeriac, cleaned and sliced thinly, a layer of onion rings and a layer of thinly sliced potatoes. Salt gradually, add a pinch of pepper and the cloves of garlic. Add a little oil and sprinkle with little curls of butter, then cook over a moderate heat for about twenty minutes, without mixing. Transfer the pan into a barely warm oven and cover with a sheet of aluminium cooking foil. Gradually turn the heat up to 200 °C and cook for about an hour. Halfway through, remove the cod from the oven and pour over it a mixture prepared separately by diluting the flour with the tomato sauce and white wine. Finally, remove from the oven and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Serve with polenta. Recommended wines: White, preferably a brut sparkling wine such as Trentino Chardonnay, served at a temperature of 6-7 °C. |