Baccalà alla Vicentina — Dried Cod in the Vicenza Style

Vicenza, Veneto — the Confraternita del Baccalà alla Vicentina has maintained the recipe and the technique since 1987, but the preparation is documented from the 15th century, when stockfish from Norway arrived in Venice via the Hanseatic League trade routes.

Baccalà alla Vicentina is one of the great fish preparations of northern Italy, made from stockfish (stoccafisso — air-dried, unsalted cod) rather than salt cod, soaked for 3-4 days until softened, then braised for 4-6 hours in a mixture of milk, anchovies, onion, and olive oil over the lowest possible heat until the fish has dissolved almost completely into the sauce, and the sauce has taken on a creamy, intensely savoury character. Despite its name (baccalà), the Vicenza preparation always uses stockfish — the confusion between baccalà (salt cod) and stoccafisso (stockfish) is specific to the Veneto dialect.

Baccalà alla Vicentina is ivory-white, creamy, and intensely savoury — the dissolved anchovies and the fish gelatin create a sauce of remarkable depth, punctuated by the sweet, delicate flavour of the rehydrated stockfish. On yellow polenta, it is the paradigm of Venetian cooking: maritime flavour brought inland, transformed by patience and very gentle heat.