Baccalà all'Aretina

Simple and tasty: a traditional fish recipe based on dried salted cod, on of the few kind of fish that could be found in an inland city like Arezzo before refrigeration was invented.

Ingredients

For 4 persons:

• 600 gr soaked dried salted cod;
• extra-virgin olive oil;
• 200 gr chickpeas;
• 3 anchovies in salt;
• 1 handful of parsley;
• 30 gr capers in salt;
• bread-crumbs;
• coarse and kitchen salt;
• black pepper.

Preparation

Preparation time; 20 minute, cooking time: 40 minutes; difficulty: minimum.

Put to soak the chickpeas for 48 hours. Strain the water and stew into a pressure-cooker for 30 minutes from the whizzing. Once the chickpeas are cooked, add a bit of coarse salt and mix them up to make it melt. Then wash and drain parsley, capers and anchovies: take off the fish-bone from the anchovies and chop them up with parsley and capers.

Heat the oven at 200° C. Cut the cod, take off any possible fish-bones and boil for 5 minutes into a bit of water; than salt drain and dry with kitchen paper. Grease a pyrex dish with olive oil, place the cod's chops, strew with the mixture of anchovies, parsley and capers adding 2-3 tablespoons of bread-crumbs; pour some extra-virgin olive oil. Cover the dish with some tinfoil and cook for 15 minutes. Then take off the silver paper and put it back in oven for 15 minutes more.

Strain the chickpeas, put them into a salad-bowl, flavour with olive oil and a generous pinch of pepper. Serve it when the cod is browned.