Codfish is like your wife, the more you beat it, the better it is.
Venetian
Dried codfish is the only fish that has been brought into Umag homes from the north seas for centuries. Before the Second World War, it could be bought either at Mario Balanza Sr.’s shop, located on the main Umag square, or in Trieste (Italy). Just as today, the predominant fasting dishes served on the Easter and Christmas tables in Veneto, Istria and Dalmatia were the ones made with codfish. The dish traditionally made in Umag was the white cod pâté (“bakalar na bijelo”). After the Second World War, codfish couldn’t be bought in Umag, so the families would buy it through their relatives living in Trieste.
The codfish was introduced to the Mediterranean thanks to the Venetian captain and merchant Pietro Querinio. In 1432, his ship got shipwrecked on their way to Flanders and after several months it docked at Loften, today’s Norway, where he saw this new air-and-sun-dried fish for the first time. He brought some to Venice and introduced the Venetians to the codfish cooking and consumption. The Venetians knew dried fish, considering the fact that they transported dried moray eels and congers in the galley holds, but codfish prevailed among dried fish over time and became a favourite festivity dish on the Adriatic.
She shared her memories of how the white cod pâté was prepared- The white cod pâté was made by the men while the women were in charge of making sweet fritters called fritule. The codfish would be beaten with a wooden bat until the desired texture was obtained.“On Christmas Eve we would make the white cod pâté. We’d also eat some bean soup with a little rice in it, followed by the codfish and cooked kale and then we’d had fritule for Christmas Eve dessert. We did it all that day and then we would go to the Midnight Mass” .
Leonilda Zubin, Marija na Krasu (1938.)
Ingredients:
- 500-600 g of dried codfish
- approx. ½ l olive oil
- few laurel leaves
- peppercorns
- approx. 6 garlic cloves
- 2 spoons of finely chopped parsley
- salt and pepper
Procedure:
Beat well the dried cod with a hammer and let it soak in cold water for at least 24 hours Some cod must be soaked up to three days. During the soaking phase, the water must be replaced several times. Once soaked, peel the cod’s skin and take out the bones.
Place the cleaned and cut cod into a pot, add water seasoned with salt and some peppercorns, as well as two laurel leaves and a few garlic cloves. Cook on low heat for about half an hour. The cooking time also depends on the quality of the codfish. Once done, reserve some cooking water.
Fry the garlic cloves you have previously squashed in a little olive oil until golden brown. Remove from the heat and take out the garlic. The garlic may also be chopped and fried in oil until golden brown and be beaten together with cod.
If the pieces of the cooked cod are still too large, shred them a bit more and then beat the cod with a wooden, bottom-flat bat while constantly pouring in the olive oil prepared as described. It is well-known that a good cod absorbs a lot of oil so the unwritten rule is to use as much oil as cod. Pour in some cooking water from time to time as well. Beat it for about 20 minutes, until the mixture is pretty smooth. At the end, if needed, season with salt and pepper while beating . You may garnish the pâté with some finely chopped parsley.
So prepared, the cod was usually served with cooked polenta or often with boiled cabbage, a brassica that grows in winter when the white cod pâté was made.
