Baccalà alla Vicentina — Dried Cod in the Vicenza Style

Ingredients

• 800 g stockfish (stoccafisso), air-dried unsalted cod; soaked in cold water for 3–4 days, water changed daily, until fully rehydrated and no longer stiff; all bones and skin removed
• 3 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 5–6 salted anchovy fillets, desalted under cold running water
• 60 g Parmigiano-Reggiano, freshly grated
• 120 ml extra-virgin olive oil, divided: for softening the onion and for layering
• 500 ml whole milk, enough to almost cover the fish in the pot
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• ½ tsp black pepper, freshly ground
• To serve
• 500 g coarse-ground yellow polenta, cooked to a soft, pourable consistency

Method

1. 1
   Soak the stockfish in a large vessel of cold water for 3–4 days, changing the water every 24 hours. The fish is ready when it is fully pliable, no longer stiff, and has swollen to roughly double its dried weight. Remove all bones and skin; cut the flesh into pieces of approximately 6–8 cm.
2. 2
   Warm half the olive oil in a heavy, wide pot — cast iron is preferred — over a moderate flame. Add the sliced onion and cook gently until softened and translucent but not coloured. Remove from the heat.
3. 3
   Spread half the softened onion across the base of the pot in an even layer. Lay the stockfish pieces on top in a single, close layer. Distribute the desalted anchovy fillets and the remaining onion over the fish. Scatter the grated Parmigiano evenly across the surface. Season with salt and pepper. Pour over the remaining olive oil, then add enough milk to almost — but not fully — cover. The surface of the fish should be just visible above the liquid.
4. 4
   THIS IS WHERE THE DISH LIVES OR DIES. Set a heat diffuser on the lowest possible burner setting and place the pot upon it. Cover tightly. The pot should barely tremble — a faint, intermittent shudder at the surface, never a simmer, never a boil. Cook undisturbed for 4.5–5 hours without stirring at any point. Vigorous heat curdles the milk and dries the fish; stirring breaks the pieces prematurely. At 4.5 hours, the liquid should have reduced and thickened to a creamy, ivory-white sauce of coating consistency, and the fish should have partially dissolved into it.
5. 5
   Remove the lid. The sauce should coat the back of a spoon with a creamy, emulsified consistency — neither oily nor watery. Taste for salt. Serve the baccalà and its sauce directly from the pot onto soft yellow polenta. The sauce and polenta together should form a coherent, yielding whole on the plate.