Bacalà Mantecato Recipes

Steps:

• When the baccalà is sufficiently soaked, cut it into small pieces-6 inches or so-and put them in a saucepan or deep skillet with at least an inch of water to cover. Bring to a boil, set the cover ajar (rest it on a wooden spoon set on the rim of the pan), and cook at a steady bubbling boil for 20 minutes or more, until the cod is easy to flake but still has body and shape. Don't let it start to break apart. Lift it out of the cooking water, and let it drain and cool in a colander. Reserve a cup of the cooking water.
• Meanwhile, rinse the potato but leave it whole and unpeeled. Put it in a small pot covered with cold water. Bring to the boil, and cook steadily until you can easily pierce the potato with a knife blade.
• Let it cool, and peel it.
• Set up the electric mixer and flake all the fish into the bowl. Beat with the paddle at low speed to break the fish up more; drop in the minced garlic, and beat at medium speed while you pour in half the olive oil very gradually in a thin stream, then add the potato and incorporate it; continue beating at low speed as you gradually add the rest of the oil.
• Now raise the speed to high and whip the fish to lighten it.
• Reduce the speed to medium and incorporate the half-and- half gradually, then whip at high speed again. At this point the whipped cod should be smooth and fluffy, almost like mashed potatoes but with texture. If it is very dense, you can thin it with the cooking water (but be careful: too much water will make it too salty).
• Finally, season with pepper and beat it in to blend. If you use a food processor instead of a mixer, follow the same order of additions, and process as needed to form a light, smooth spread. Put the spread in containers and store sealed, in the refrigerator, for up to a week. You can also freeze baccalà mantecato; the texture will not be as creamy, but it will have good flavor and makes a delicious pasta sauce.

Steps:

• Put enough cold water to cover the fish in a pot with the fish, carrot, celery, and onion, and bring it to a boil over medium heat. As soon as the water boils, remove from the heat and let the pot stand for 5 minutes, then remove the fish with a skimmer and lay it on absorbent paper to drain and cool. When the baccala is cool enough to handle, remove all the bones, a necessarily manual operation. Do not remove the skin, however.
• Put the milk in a pan over low heat, and heat it until it is hot, taking care not to boil or burn it. Meanwhile, crumble the baccala by hand and put it in a bowl. Use a pestle to pulverize the fish, stopping every now and then to whisk in, alternately, trickles of oil and hot milk. Go back and forth between using the pestle and whisk. Continue to beat tirelessly; the process should take about 15 minutes. Salt is not normally necessary, but do add some black pepper. If the mixture gets too cold to mix well during the mashing, reheat it in a bain-marie until it is sufficiently malleable. You should also reheat it until it's warm when you are about to serve it. Accompany it with croutons of fried white bread or fried polenta.

Steps:

• Start cooking your dry pasta in a big pot of salted water just before starting the sauce. If you are doing fresh pasta or gnocchi, don't put it in until after you start the sauce.
• Pour the oil in the skillet, scatter the garlic in the oil, and put the pan over medium heat. Get the garlic sizzling, but don't let it get dark; stir it or shake the pan frequently. After a couple of minutes, sprinkle the pepper flakes in the oil, let them sizzle for a minute, then scrape in the baccalà spread and stir it well in the skillet.
• Let the baccalà heat up for a few minutes; ladle 2 cups of boiling water from the pasta pot into the skillet and stir it, incorporating the baccalà mantecato, garlic, and oil into a thin sauce. Bring it to a boil, stirring, add the salt and pepper to taste, then adjust the heat to keep the sauce simmering actively until the pasta is almost al dente.
• Add the drained pasta or gnocchi to the skillet, and toss to coat and finish cooking with the sauce (see page 92). Remove from the heat, toss with parsley, and serve.

Steps:

• To prepare, place the bacalà in a large bowl. Fill the bowl with water and soak the bacalà for 1 hour, changing the water two or three times during that period. Remove the bacalà from the water and cut it into three segments.
• Heat the olive oil and garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat, season with salt, and cook, stirring constantly, to flavor the oil with the garlic and sweat the garlic without browning it, about 2 minutes. Add the potatoes and cook for 1 minute to coat them with seasonings. Add the milk, increase the heat to high, and cook until the milk begins to bubble. Reduce the heat and simmer the potatoes in the milk until they're tender, about 20 minutes. Add the bacalà and simmer until the fish is cooked through and the potatoes have begun to break down, thickening the milk to a saucelike consistency, about 6 minutes. Pass the contents of the saucepan through a food mill into a mixing bowl and stir to combine the ingredients. Transfer half of the purée to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade or the jar of a blender and purée until smooth. Return the puréed bacalà to the bowl with the unpuréed cod and stir to combine. Add more milk if necessary to obtain a spoonable consistency. Taste for seasoning and add more salt, if desired. Serve the mantecato or transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to three days. Before serving, warm the mantecato in a small saucepan over low heat, adding enough milk to obtain the desired consistency.
• To assemble, lay the crostini oiled side up on a work surface and spoon a heaping tablespoon of the bacalà mantecato into an uneven layer onto each crostino, leaving the edges of the bread visible. Create a small crater in the center of each mound of bacalà and spoon 1/4 teaspoon of the tapenade into each crater. (If you are using olives instead of tapenade, nestle one olive in each crater and drizzle with 1/8 teaspoon of the finishing-quality olive oil.) Sprinkle with the parsley and serve.
• Soave Classico (Veneto)