flipSalted Cod with Raisins and Pine Nuts
Salted Cod with Raisins and Pine Nuts
Why this dish? The many lean days imposed by the Church — Fridays, Lent, vigils — deprived Tassi of meat. In Rome, people then turned to dried and salted cod, desalted and stewed, a classic of modest tables as well as convents.
Salted and dried fish, long desalted, gently stewed with onion, raisins, and pine nuts: the typical sweet-and-sour contrast of Roman cuisine of the time, and a preserved dish that could keep for months.
On Friday, my friend, the Church locks your pantry: not a morsel of flesh, on pain of damnation! But the Roman is clever. We keep a board of cod as hard as wood, soak it for two days changing the water morning and evening, and there it is tender as a lamb. I let it melt slowly with onion, a handful of currants and pine nuts — the sweet and the salty squabbling in the mouth. And believe me, you no longer weep for meat.
- •Salted dried cod — a nice piece (preserved protein)
- •Onion — one large (melting base)
- •Raisins — a handful (sweet note)
- •Pine nuts — a handful (crunch)
- •Olive oil — a drizzle (cooking)
- •Vinegar — a splash (acidity)
- •Parsley — a few sprigs (freshness)
Salted Cod with Raisins and Pine Nuts
Salted and dried fish, long desalted, gently stewed with onion, raisins, and pine nuts: the typical sweet-and-sour contrast of Roman cuisine of the time, and a preserved dish that could keep for months.
Why this dish? The many lean days imposed by the Church — Fridays, Lent, vigils — deprived Tassi of meat. In Rome, people then turned to dried and salted cod, desalted and stewed, a classic of modest tables as well as convents.
On Friday, my friend, the Church locks your pantry: not a morsel of flesh, on pain of damnation! But the Roman is clever. We keep a board of cod as hard as wood, soak it for two days changing the water morning and evening, and there it is tender as a lamb. I let it melt slowly with onion, a handful of currants and pine nuts — the sweet and the salty squabbling in the mouth. And believe me, you no longer weep for meat.
Ingredients (period version)
- Salted dried cod — a nice piece (preserved protein)
- Onion — one large (melting base)
- Raisins — a handful (sweet note)
- Pine nuts — a handful (crunch)
- Olive oil — a drizzle (cooking)
- Vinegar — a splash (acidity)
- Parsley — a few sprigs (freshness)
Ingredients
- Salted cod (baccalà) — 600 g (preserved protein)
- Onion — 1 large, sliced (melting base)
- Raisins — 50 g (sweet note)
- Pine nuts — 40 g (crunch)
- Extra virgin olive oil — 4 tablespoons (cooking)
- White wine vinegar — 1 tablespoon (acidity)
- Flat-leaf parsley — a few sprigs, chopped (freshness)
Method
- Desalt the cod for 36 to 48 hours in the refrigerator in a large volume of cold water, changing the water 3 or 4 times. Drain and cut into large pieces.
- Soak the raisins for 15 minutes in a little warm water.
- In a casserole, melt the sliced onion in oil over low heat, without browning.
- Add the cod, drained raisins, and pine nuts, moisten with half a glass of water, and simmer covered for 20 minutes.
- Deglaze with a splash of vinegar, sprinkle with parsley, and serve warm with bread.
How it was made : Lacking refrigeration, salting and drying were the only ways to preserve fish far from the coast. North Atlantic cod, imported salted, became a staple of lean days throughout Italy. The sweet-and-sour combination of fish with raisins and pine nuts is a direct heritage of medieval and Renaissance cuisine, still alive in the 17th century.
The contemporary twist : Served in small bites on grilled toast, this agrodolce cod makes a very successful cicchetto for aperitifs.
Agostino Tassi · Charactorium
