Baccala e ceci (with notes on other ways to make baccala)

Everyone knows that Friday is fish day for Catholics (even for some lapsed Catholics like myself). A traditional Friday dish in Rome is baccala' e ceci, salted cod fish with chick peas. (I love fried baccala', and there was a well-known place on via dei Giubbonari, close to our apartment, called Filetti di Baccala' that I loved to go to--whenever I could convince my fish-shy significant other.) Anyway, I still make baccala' from time to time and on a recent Friday I decided to try my hand at baccala' e ceci, which I had never made before. The recipe is actually very simple: you cut pre-soaked baccala (see note below) into fillets, dip them in a simple batter of water and flour (I added a bit of olive oil) and fry them until golden brown.

You serve these fried fillets over a bed of chickpeas stewed in oil seasoned with garlic and rosemary. Chickpeas come canned or dried. They are simple to cook--like other beans, you need to soak them first for a few hours or overnight, then simmer them in water very slowly until tender. But cooking dried chickpeas takes a long time--several hours to soak and several more hours simmering in water until they're tender (using a pressure cooker speeds things up, but it will still take an hour or so)--so I usually resort to canned chickpeas, which are actually quite a decent substitute. But the problem with canned chickpeas is that you lose the 'broth' that results from the long simmering, which gives any resulting dish a wonderful deep chickpea taste. So on Friday, being too lazy as usual to use dried chickpeas, I decided to add tomatoes to the garlic and rosemary cooking base for some more flavor. The result was quite good--cod fish and chickpeas are a great taste combination--, but, if I had to do it over again, I'd add a bit more water to 'loosen' the peas. And one day I'll need to try it the old-fashioned way. By the way, if you have leftovers, you can make another classic Roman dish, pasta e ceci. (I'll post that recipe one of these days.)

The classic way to make filetti di baccala', by the way, is with a different kind of batter (pastella in Italian) that includes eggs and yeast. The result is a much thicker, almost fluffy crust that resembles a fritter. The delicious Roman answer to fish and chips. Whether you use this batter or the simpler one described above, you should let the batter 'sit' out for two hours or so to allow its elements to meld. I'm not sure about the chemistry, but it just doesn't come out right if you skip this step. The other thing to remember about making a batter is that the more liquid it is, the lighter the resulting crust will be--which I prefer. But too much liquid and the batter will not stick to whatever piece of food it is meant to cover, so don't overdo it! I find a batter that is just a bit thicker than heavy cream works well.

Since I had too much fish for a dinner for two, I used the rest of it to make my favorite salt cod dish, brandade de morue, one of the classics of Provencal cooking. It is very simple to make if you have a food processor: just simmer the pre-soaked salt cod in water (with some potato if you like, even if purists apparently call this inauthentic) for a few minutes, until both fish and potato are soft. Add the cod (and potato, if using) into the bowl of the processor, add chopped garlic (or chop it in the processor before you add the cod fish) and begin processing. Begin adding milk (or cream if you're feeling extravagant) and olive oil alternating between the two a little at a time, until the mixture is smooth and fluffy. Adjust for salt if needed. If you like you can pass it under a broiler until it forms a nice crust (see photo), a good way to reheat it if you make it ahead. Brandade is absolutely wonderful served with toasted baguette slices (rubbed with garlic if you like), accompanied with some green salad and washed down with some cold white wine, it makes a marvelous quick and easy light supper.

There are many, many other ways to make baccala'. In the south, baccala' is often lightly fried and stewed in tomato sauce, while one of my other favorite ways to make it is baccala' alla vicentina, baked in a sauce of onions, parsley, olive oil and milk, from the Northern Italian city of Vicenza. Next time we have baccala' I'll post some more recipes.

NOTE: Baccala' is cod fish that has been preserved by being salt-cured and dried. When you buy it dry, it is quite hard to the touch and very, very salty to the taste. In other words, you can't eat it that way--it generally needs 24+ hours of soaking in various changes of water. In Italy, it is really easy to make as a lot of places will sell you pre-soaked baccala' on Fridays. Here in the States, I've only seen pre-soaked baccala' once, in an Italian neighborhood in New York. You can probably find it in Little Italys in other cities. Most places, though, you'll need to pre-soak the salted cod fish yourself. It's no big deal, but you need to plan ahead. Some types of baccala' need less time to soak. The kind I buy at our local Whole Foods is not that salty, so if you start soaking in the morning, it's more or less ready for dinner. I find that if I soak it for 24 hours, it loses too much of its saltiness, which is typical of baccala'. But for those who prefer a less salty baccala', just soak it longer and remember to change the water more often. Friends have reported that their grandmothers also used milk instead of water to soak the baccala'.

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