Baccalà alla Vicentina

Step 1

Soak well-bashed stockfish in cold running waterm changing it every 4 hours for 2 to 3 days.

Step 2

Remove part of the skin. Cut the fish alongside and remove the fishbone. Cut it in square pieces, making sure the size of each piece is more or less the same.

Step 3

Finely chop the onions and cook them in a small pan with a glass of oil until browned.

Step 4

Remove the salt and the bones from sardines, cut them into pieces and add them to the onions.

Step 5

Then, turn the fire off and add a tuft of chopped parsley.

Step 6

Flour the pieces of stockfish, sprinkle them with the onions and sardines browned in oil and place them one next to the other in a terracotta or aluminum pan, or in an oven dish (make sure you cover the bottom with a few spoons of onions and sardines browned in oil).

Step 7

Cover up the fish with the remaining part of the onions and the sardines browned in oil and add milk, grated mature cheese, salt and pepper.

Step 8

Add oil until you cover all the pieces, leveling them.

Step 9

Leave the pan on the fire for about 4 ½ hours, making sure you rotate it every now and then, without stirring. This cooking phase is also known as "pipare" in the local dialect. Only experience can tell you how long you have to cook the stockfish for, whose stiffness may differ from one fish to another.

Step 10

Serve piping hot with a slice of polenta, but it is also great after letting it rest for 12-24 hours.