This blog post was originally posted on January 10, 2015, and was updated on November 26, 2017.
The colder month’s call for something warm and wonderful. What better way to do that than to cook up this delicious Catalan salt cod recipe?
Get your best cookware out and at the ready for this bacalao a la llauna recipe. A Catalan salt-cod dish that is rich enough to keep us warm during the chilly months of winter. It is one of the most well-known dishes around. Buy your cod from some of the various stalls in our local markets dotted throughout the city.
Salt-cod, or bacalao, is a product that was born out of necessity. Coating the fish with salt meant greatly prolonging its shelf-life, something very valuable in the past when common luxuries like refrigerators or freezers did not exist. Furthermore, it added a lot of flavor to the fish, and that’s why we continue this practice today.
The word llauna refers to the traditional tin recipient people used in the past to maintain flavor, heat, and juiciness in the fish. Nowadays, we can use any oven-friendly baking dish. Try this deliciously simply salt cod recipe at home!
Bacalao a la Llauna – Salt Cod Recipe
- 1 pound of thick salt cod fillets, soaked at least 24 hours (see note below)*
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- White wine
- Sweet Spanish paprika
- Flour
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Parsley
- *Unless you buy the salt cod already desalted, you must prepare it by soaking it in water for at least 24 hours, changing the water about every 8 hours. Depending on the thickness of the filet, you may need to leave it for up to 48 hours.
- Prepare the salt cod. After the soaking process, dry the filets by patting with a paper towel.
- Coat the filets in flour and brown them in about 1/2 inch of oil over medium heat.
- Remove the cod from the pan and place in a glass or tin baking recipient.
- Slice two garlic cloves into thin pieces and brown them in the oil from the cod. When they begin to turn brown, add the paprika first then immediately after a generous pour of white wine.
- Allow the garlic, paprika, and wine to boil for a few minutes as the alcohol evaporates.
- Pour the mixture over the bacalao.
- Chop the parsley and remaining garlic cloves and sprinkle over the bacalao.
- Bake at 180º Celsius for about 15 minutes.
