Bacalao al Pil Pil

A classic Basque salt cod dish with a beautifully silky sauce.

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 25

Soaking 2

Total Time 2 45

Course Main Course

Cuisine Basque, Spanish

Servings

4 pieces skin-on salt cod bacalao, about 600 g total (about 1 lb. 5 oz.; the skin must be left on)
6 cloves garlic
1 dried chili pepper
400 ml olive oil about 1⅔ cups
Fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

First, remove any large pieces of salt from the fish, soak it in cold water, and put it in the refrigerator.
Depending on its thickness, soak it for 36–48 hours, changing the soaking water roughly every 6–8 hours. Keep it refrigerated throughout.
Before making the bacalao al pil pil, remove the fish from the water and pat it thoroughly dry with paper towels.

Peel the garlic and cut it into thin, 1–2 mm slices (about 1/16 inch). If you’d like the dish spicier, slice the chili into rings, but you can also leave it whole.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet or an earthenware cooking dish suitable for direct heat.
Add the chili and garlic, and cook until pale golden. Don’t overcook them! Once they’re ready, remove both the garlic and chili from the oil with a slotted spoon.
Let the oil cool a little so it isn’t hot. The fish should gently poach in it, with barely any bubbling.
Ideally, the oil should come halfway up the pieces of fish, or slightly below that.
Place the fish in the oil skin-side up, and cook gently for 3–5 minutes, depending on its thickness.
Turn the fish very carefully, and cook gently for another 3–5 minutes on the other side.
Very carefully transfer the fish to a plate.
In traditional versions, the emulsion is often made with the cod still in the cooking vessel. I removed the pieces of fish because that makes them less likely to fall apart during the prolonged shaking.

Take the cooking vessel off the heat and use a large spoon to transfer the oil to a separate container. Let it cool until lukewarm.
Leave the juices released by the fish in the skillet or cooking dish, along with a very small amount of oil. Add any liquid that has collected beneath the fish on the plate too.
Start shaking and swirling the skillet until the contents come together into a cloudy, fairly uniform liquid with a few patches of oil.
While continuously shaking and swirling, add the oil in small amounts at first, then in larger amounts if the sauce allows.
You should end up with a silky, uniform emulsion—a sauce. There may be patches of oil on top, but the sauce itself needs to come together.
This is a time-consuming process; it took me 14 minutes to finish the sauce.

Place the fish in the earthenware dish or serving bowl you’ll use to serve it.
I warmed this dish beforehand in a 120°F (50°C) oven. You can also put the fish in the oven at this temperature if you’d like to keep it warm.
Pour the sauce over the fish.
If necessary, warm it very gently, for example in a 120°F (50°C) oven. Never put it over high heat. If it starts to separate, shake it until it comes together again.
Scatter the cooked garlic slices over the top, add the chili, and garnish with finely chopped fresh parsley.

Keyword classic, creamy, Gluten-free, saucy

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