Italian cuisine · Fish & Seafood

Baccalà Mantecato

A Venetian salt cod cream: cooked fish is whipped snow-white with olive oil and spooned over polenta.

Ingredients · for 6 servings

• 600 g desalted salt cod
• 200 ml olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 300 ml milk
• 150 g medium cornmeal
• 1/2 bunch flat-leaf parsley
• 1 lemon
• Salt, pepper

Instructions

1. Put the desalted salt cod with the milk, 300 ml water, the bay leaf and a crushed garlic clove into a pot and let poach over very gentle heat for 20 min. without boiling.
2. Lift out the fish, reserve the poaching liquid, and carefully remove any skin and all bones from the warm fish – any missed bone will spoil the cream later.
3. Put the warm fish into a bowl and break it up with a mixer on medium speed for 2 min. until it falls apart into fibers.
4. With the mixer running, drizzle in the olive oil in a thin stream as if making mayonnaise, adding spoonfuls of the warm poaching liquid in between, until a white, airy cream forms after 8–10 min.
5. Finely grate the second garlic clove, stir it in and season with pepper, a little salt and a few drops of lemon juice; chill the cream covered for 30 min.
6. Cook a firm polenta from the cornmeal with 600 ml salted water, let cool, cut into slices, briefly pan-fry and top with the cream and chopped parsley.