Baccalà alla Lucana

Salt cod floured and fried, finished with dried sweet peppers crisped in the same oil.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 1 kg salt cod, soaked 48 hours in cold water, changed four times, and the soaking water discarded
• 4 tablespoons plain flour, for dusting
• 150 ml olive oil
• 8 dried sweet peppers, cruschi if you can get them
• 4 cloves garlic, whole and crushed
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Soak and drain the cod as before, then cut it into pieces and dry them very thoroughly on a cloth.
2. Dust the pieces in flour and shake off what does not stick. Unlike the abruzzese version there is no sauce to hide in — the flour crust is the texture of the dish.
3. Heat the oil with the garlic until the garlic is golden, then lift the garlic out and discard it.
4. Fry the cod 3 minutes a side until the crust is set and golden. Lift it onto a warm plate.
5. Now the peppers. Drop them into the same oil for 20 TO 30 SECONDS ONLY, turning once. They go from leathery to glassy and brittle in that time, and a few seconds past it they turn black and bitter with no way back. Lift them straight onto paper.
6. Crumble half the peppers over the fish, stand the rest whole alongside, and spoon a little of the oil over.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes