Salad of Salt Cod, Artichokes, Radicchio, and Green Olives
Here is an interesting, tasty salt cod salad from Southern Italy. Salted cod is paired with briny green olives and bitter Radicchio, and thin-sliced raw artichokes. A simple, warm vinaigrette of olive oil and red wine vinegar, infused with garlic and chile flakes, dresses the salad and adds a touch of heat and acid to round out the flavors.
This is a very satisfying little salad. It’s tasty, full of big Italian flavors, colorful, healthy, and easy to prepare, after having soaked the cod for 24 hours.
A nice thing about salt cod is its convenience – if you enjoy cooking and eating it, you can keep a pound or two in the fridge, and it will last for months as the salt preserves the fish and prevents bacteria from growing. Salt cod can be hard to find, so when you do see it, it might be a good idea to buy extra for later.
Heat & Knives
The Recipe
Source: A Taste of Southern Italy
8 tiny artichokes, preferably the purple-lipped variety, or 4 small, very young artichokes, several inches of their stems still intact
1 1-pound fillet of baccala, skinless and boneless
1 cup whole milk
juice of 1 lemon
1 small head red lettuce, radicchio or red oak leaf, washed, spun dry, and coarsely shredded
4 ounces large green Sicilian or Greek olives, crushed lightly with a mallet, stones removed, the flesh coarsely chopped
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 fat cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, and finely minced
1 small, dried red chile pepper, crushed, or 1/3 to ½ teaspoon dried chile flakes
1 ½ tablespoons good red wine vinegar
fine sea salt
Prepare the artichokes, trimming just a snip from their still-tender leaves and leaving them whole if they are tiny, slicing them in two, or even in fourths, if they are a bit larger, cutting out the choke should it have begun to develop beyond an innocent embryo.
Soften the baccala a bit with a mallet and soak for 24 hours in cold water (change the water three times, adding 1 cup of milk to the final water), rinse the baccala in cold water, cover again with cold water, and poach for 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
In a large bowl, acidulate the artichokes with the juice of a lemon, add the shredded lettuce, the copped olives, and the poached baccala, cut into 1-inch pieces.
Make a simple warm vinaigrette by heating the olive oil, softening the garlic without coloring it for a minute or two, and scent the oil with the crushed chile. Remove from the heat, add the vinegar and a whisper of sea salt. Beat the dressing with a fork and pour it over the elements in the bowl, tossing them about and combining them well.
Present the salad with a young, cooled red wine that will do its best to stand up to both the artichokes and the baccala.
