In all Venetian recipes Baccalà stands for dried cod not salted cod.

Baccala on crostini bread

Ingredients. About 300 gr of dried cod, garlic, bay-leaf, salt,pepper,olive oil, parsley

Preparation: Cut the cod into pieces and place them into a pan full of water. Leave it in water for 2 days (change the water regularly).

After 2 days substitute the water with some lightly salted water, a bay leaf and cook for 30 minutes. Make sure to remove the foam which will form when the water starts boiling.

After 30 minutes, remove the pieces of cod from the pan and place in a container with high sides. Remove the skin and the bones form the cod and add 2 gloves of garlic. Take a wooden spoon and start to mix with energy slowly adding the olive oil 8just like if you were making mayonnaise). The quantity of the oil will depend on the capacity of absorbing of the cod. Carry on mixing till the cod will turn into a nice mousse like sort of cream. Taste and add salt if required. Add some pepper and use on fresh cut bread slices or grilled slices of polenta. Garnish with some parsley.

Creamy baccala

The difficulty of this dish is the mixing that can take up to an hour. To speed the process you can use an immersion mixer.