There is a class of dishes common to Tuscany and Liguria curiously styled “in zimino” in which the main ingredient, usually seafood, is simmered in greens, usually spinach or Swiss chard, and more often than some tomato. As regular readers may remember, in past posts we’ve looked at calamari in zimino, as well as the vegetarian chickpeas in zimino. Today I’d like to share yet another delicious example with salt cod, baccalà in zimino.

The salt cod is soaked until soft, then lightly floured and fried in olive oil until lightly golden brown. The zimino is prepared separately and the fried baccalà is then simmered for just a few minutes in the sauce. As mentioned, the zimino can be prepared with spinach, but I prefer Swiss chard in the cooler months. And for the tomato, I’ve gone here with greenhouse cherry tomatoes, which you can find all year round.

If you don’t care for salt cod or just can’t source it, no need to pass this lovely recipe by. It will work perfectly well with fresh cod instead, in which case rather than baccala in zimino you’ll want to call your dish merluzzo in zimino. And in fact, you can make any other firm fleshed fish this same way, with equally delicious results.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

1 kilo (2 lbs) salt cod
Flour, q.b.

For the zimino:

1 kilo (2 lbs) Swiss chard
500-600g (1 to 1-1/3 lb) cherry tomatoes, split in half
1 medium onion
1 stalk of celery
1-2 cloves of garlic
A few sprigs of parsley
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
A pinch of dried red pepper (optional)

Directions

Preparing the salt cod

The night before, rinse the salt cod and immerse it in a large bowl of water. Soak overnight, changing the water at least once.

Remove the cod and pat it dry. Cut it into serving pieces.

Lightly flour the salt cod pieces, then shallow fry them in olive oil until golden brown on both sides. Set aside on a plate lined with paper towels.

Prepping the Swiss chard

Trim the Swiss chard of its stems, then parboil the leaves in abundant well salted water for 2-3 minutes. Drain, rinse quickly under cold water, then pat them dry.

Cut the leaves into thin strips.

Preparing the zimino sauce

Cut the onion and celery into chunks. Then chop them together with the garlic and parsley until you have a very fine, almost paste-like mince.

In a braiser or sauté pan large enough to contain all the cod pieces in a single layer, sauté the mince in abundant olive oil until it is quite soft. (At this point, add a pinch of red pepper flakes if using.)

Add the cherry tomatoes and simmer for a few minutes, until they begin to wilt, perhaps 3-5 minutes. Then add the Swiss chard, give it a turn and let it sauté gentle for a minute or two with the tomatoes. Add a ladleful of the chard’s cooking water, cover partially and simmer for another 10 minutes or a bit longer, until the chard is fully tender. Add more water from time to time if needed to keep things moist.

Finishing the dish

Gingerly lay the cod fish pieces on top of the tomato and Swiss chard, adding another ladle of water to the pan. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes, until the fish is tender and heated through.

Serve right away.

Notes

Baccalà in zimino is a pretty straightforward dish to prepare. The only tricky part, really, is the tendency of the salt cod to flake apart once it’s cooked, so handle it gingerly during and especially after the initial frying. Don’t turn it more than you need to during frying (ideally, just once) and let it reheat in the sauce without turning.

If you want to serve the fillets “clean” as pictured above, just lay them on top of the zimino as instructed for the final simmer. If you want them to absorb more of the flavor, nudge them into the sauce, and add enough water to barely cover them. They won’t be quite as pretty but they will be very flavorful.

Salt Cod

Salt cod needs to soak to soften and eliminate its excess salt, typically between 24 hours (when it will still be quite briny which is the way I like it) but as much as 48 hours (if you prefer a milder taste, more akin to fresh fish).

That said, occasionally I’ve found salt cod that’s been only lightly salted. It only needed 8 hours soaking. Others are so heavily salted that they need the full 48 hours (or even longer). In any event, there are sometime indications on the package. If not, I’d go with 24 hours as a default, and give it a little taste test. Do try to change the water several times during the soak. I usually rinse the salt cod to begin with, the change the water at least once before I go to sleep. If the first hour or two. I try to get in a third change at some point, but it’s less critical.

And as I mentioned at the top, this recipe for baccalà in zimino also works very well with fresh cod. In fact, you may have to resort to it as salt cod seems to be getting harder and harder to source, at least where I live. And when you do find it, it costs an arm and a leg. Another reasonably firm fleshed fish can do the job. Halibut or monkfish, for example, would be fine choices.

Tomato

Instead of cherry tomatoes, you can use canned tomatoes which you’ve run through a food mill or for that matter, some passata di pomodoro. In this case, you may want to simmer the sauce initially a bit longer, say 10 minutes.

The amount of tomato can vary enormously among recipes for baccalà in zimino. In some the amount of the tomato is double it is here. And if you want a particularly assertive tomato presence, you can use canned tomatoes, sieved through a food mill, or tomato passata. On the other end of the spectrum, the dish can also be made completely in bianco aka without any tomato. Just add the Swiss chard directly to the aromatic vegetables, along with a splash or white wine or water and proceed as per the recipe above. If you want to get fancy, you can purée the greens. (I wouldn’t recommend this if you’re using tomato, as the color isn’t very pretty.)

Swiss chard

Swiss chard comes in many different cultivars with differing stalk and leave colors. Feel free to use any type for making baccalà in zimino. Also, although you don’t need them for this dish, I never throw away the Swiss chard stalks. There are many ways to enjoy them: gratinéed, sautéed, in soup or risotto, as a sformato, as a warm salad, deep fried… Check out this post for ideas.

Making ahead

Baccalà in zimino may be made entirely ahead. But better still, pre-fry the fish and pre-simmer the zimino sauce. Then when you’re ready to serve, bring the sauce to a simmer, then add the fish and continue for five minutes or so.

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