Baccalà is Atlantic cod that has been salted and dried, and it is one of the most important preserved foods in Italian culinary history. The paradox at the heart of Italian baccalà culture is geographical: the cod that sustains a significant component of Italian regional cooking is caught in the waters of the North Atlantic — the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, the Norwegian Sea, the Icelandic fishing grounds — and has been traded into the Mediterranean since the late 15th century, when the Basque fishermen who first exploited the Newfoundland cod grounds developed the salt-preservation techniques that made it possible to transport fish to southern Europe in edible form. The cod never saw the Mediterranean; the preserved form of it became essential to Mediterranean cooking in a remarkably short time.
The Italian distinction between baccalà (salt cod — preserved by salting, requiring desalting before use) and stoccafisso (stockfish — preserved by air-drying in the cold Lofoten Islands air, without salt) is maintained with varying degrees of precision in different regions: in most of Italy, baccalà means the salted version; in the Veneto and the northeast, baccalà confusingly means stockfish, and what the rest of Italy calls baccalà they call merluzzo salato. The confusion is a legacy of the trading routes that brought the two products into different Italian regional kitchens at different times via different merchants, and it means that discussing baccalà in Italian requires first establishing which version is being discussed.
The Historical Background
The entry of salt cod into Italian cuisine belongs to the late 15th and 16th centuries, when the trade networks of the northern European maritime powers — Hanseatic merchants, Basque fishermen, Portuguese traders — established regular supply routes that made Norwegian and Newfoundland cod available in the ports of Genoa, Venice, and Naples. The Catholic obligation to abstain from meat on Fridays and during Lent created a sustained demand for preserved fish throughout the year, and baccalà — cheap, long-lasting, nutritious, and flexible as a cooking ingredient — was the most practical answer to this demand for populations that lived inland or in areas where fresh fish was expensive or unavailable.
The Friday obligation is now rarely enforced as it once was, but its mark on Italian cooking is permanent: the baccalà recipes developed over four centuries of Friday cooking are now simply part of the regional cuisine, disconnected from their religious origin but maintained by the quality of the food they produce. Baccalà mantecato in Venice, baccalà alla vicentina, the various Neapolitan preparations, the Florentine baccalà fritto — these dishes persist because they are genuinely good, not because the Friday obligation continues to require them.
Desalting and Preparation
The preparation of baccalà for cooking begins 24-48 hours before the dish is served. The salt-dried fish is submerged in cold water and the water changed several times over this period — typically four to six changes — to draw the salt out of the flesh gradually. The correct degree of desalting varies by preparation: some dishes require a fish that is still slightly salty (the Venetian baccalà mantecato, for example), while others require complete desalting to allow precise seasoning in the cooking. Over-desalted baccalà loses the preserved character that distinguishes it from fresh cod; under-desalted baccalà is unpleasantly salty no matter what other ingredients are used.
After desalting, the cod is firm and white, with a texture similar to very fresh cod but with a slight opaqueness in the flesh that distinguishes it from the fresh fish. The flavour, even after complete desalting, has a depth and concentration that fresh cod does not possess — the result of the molecular changes that occur during the months of salt preservation. This depth of flavour is what makes baccalà interesting to cook with, and what makes the substitution of fresh cod in baccalà recipes always produce an inferior result.
Regional Preparations: A Survey
The diversity of Italian baccalà preparations reflects both the geographic spread of the ingredient’s use and the specific food cultures it entered. The most celebrated versions span from the northeast to the south.
Baccalà mantecato alla veneziana — the Venetian preparation that is the canonical cicchetti (small bite) of the bacari — is made by poaching the desalted fish in milk, removing the bones and skin, and then working the flaked fish with olive oil and sometimes a small amount of milk or cream, beating it continuously until it becomes a smooth, creamy white paste. The result is served at room temperature on grilled polenta or bread, and its flavour — mild, creamy, with the subtle depth of the preserved fish — is one of the more surprising preparations for those expecting something stronger. It is served cold or at room temperature, never hot.
Baccalà alla vicentina — from Vicenza, the Venetian hinterland — is confusingly made with stockfish (which Venetians call baccalà) rather than salt cod. The stockfish is desalted by soaking over four to five days, then slow-cooked in a large amount of olive oil with onion, anchovy, and milk for several hours until the oil has been fully absorbed by the fish and the result is something between a braise and a confit. It is served with polenta and is one of the dishes that requires the most time investment of any in the Italian repertoire — the slow-cooking period is typically five to six hours — and produces a result whose specific flavour is unlike any other fish preparation.
Baccalà alla napoletana takes the fish in a completely different direction: the desalted cod is floured and fried, then finished in a tomato sauce with olives, capers, and pine nuts — the Neapolitan sweet-and-sour tradition applied to preserved fish, combining the salty, concentrated flavour of the baccalà with the acidity of the tomato and the brine of the olives. The version eaten on Christmas Eve in Naples — the Feast of the Seven Fishes (or more commonly, a selection of fish dishes that has evolved from the Catholic tradition of meatless Christmas Eve) — is a communal experience of a scale that individual restaurant visits don’t replicate.
In Liguria, baccalà appears in the brandacujun — a Ligurian variant of the mantecato technique, in which the fish is cooked with potatoes, garlic, and olive oil and then worked until creamy. The word “brandacujun” refers to the motion of the cooking pot being shaken over the fire to incorporate the ingredients, and the result has a different texture from the Venetian version — coarser, more potato-forward, with a rougher consistency that reflects the Ligurian preference for more robust preparations.
The Sicilian and Southern Traditions
In southern Italy and Sicily, baccalà appears primarily in fried preparations and in slow-cooked tomato-based dishes. The Calabrian baccalà — marinated in olive oil, garlic, and chilli and served cold, or fried and served with a sweet-and-sour sauce — reflects the specific spice profile of Calabrian cooking more broadly. The Sicilian preparations incorporate the Arab influence visible in the island’s cuisine generally: the combination of sweet and savoury, the use of raisins and pine nuts alongside the salt of the fish, the connection to the Sicilian agrodolce (sweet-and-sour) tradition.
The Natale tradition of baccalà extends across all of southern Italy — Christmas Eve is the evening when the preserved fish traditions are most elaborately expressed — but each regional kitchen expresses it differently, using the same ingredient in preparations that reflect entirely different culinary logics. The Venetian mantecato, the Neapolitan with tomato and olives, the Calabrian with chilli and marinating oil: these are three very different dishes that happen to share a starting ingredient.
Sourcing and Quality
The quality of baccalà varies considerably by source and by the curing process used. The best baccalà is from Norwegian Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) caught in the Lofoten Islands area and processed by traditional salting methods that produce a fish with a specific texture and flavour depth. The quality is visible in the fish before soaking: good baccalà is thick, uniformly coloured, and has a firm, compact texture when pressed. Thin baccalà (from smaller fish) produces a less substantial result after desalting. Pre-soaked and packaged baccalà (sold in some Italian supermarkets as ready to cook) has typically been desalted too rapidly, producing a fish that lacks the characteristic flavour depth.
In Italy, the best baccalà is sold by fishmongers who source it from specific suppliers and who can advise on the degree of desalting required for different preparations. The specialist fish markets of Venice (the Rialto), Naples (Porta Nolana), and Genoa (the Mercato Orientale) typically have dedicated baccalà sections with a range of qualities and thicknesses. The difference between the best baccalà from these sources and the packaged supermarket product, prepared and cooked identically, is immediately apparent in flavour and texture.
The Broader Context: Preserved Foods in Italian Cooking
Baccalà is the most internationally recognised example of a broader Italian preserved food tradition that includes bottarga (cured fish roe — grey mullet in Sardinia, tuna in Sicily), ‘nduja (the spreadable fermented pork product of Calabria), the various regional salumi, and the preserved vegetable preparations (sott’aceto, sott’olio) that constitute a significant part of the Italian pantry. These preserved foods are not convenience products in the modern sense — they are not approximations of fresh ingredients. They are primary cooking materials with their own distinct flavours and textures, and the dishes built around them are specific to those flavours rather than workarounds for seasonal unavailability.
The quality of the preserved food tradition in any region correlates directly with the quality of the regional cuisine: in Calabria, where ‘nduja, bottarga, and baccalà are all important cooking ingredients, the regional cuisine has a depth and specificity that regions without a preserved food culture cannot easily replicate. The same applies to the Veneto (bottarga, baccalà mantecato), to Sardinia (bottarga of grey mullet, preserved tuna), and to the various Italian regions where the Catholic Friday tradition sustained centuries of development in preserved fish cooking. The cultural and historical context of these foods is inseparable from their quality as ingredients — understanding where baccalà came from and why it became important is part of understanding what it tastes like and why it is worth seeking out.
