Recipe for fried stockfish

Years ago, when the weekly market in Portoferraio was held, the farmers would go every Friday to sell their products and try to make some money. One of the moral laws of the Church was that you couldn't eat meat on a Friday; for this reason, when the farmers' hard day's work came to an end and they would stop to have something to eat, one of the most common foods was often stockfish already softened in water ready to be cooked

Traditionally it was cooked in more than one way: in a sauce, grilled in a pan or boiled with chickpeas.

Here is another recipe that comes from the women from Elba: fried stockfish.

Ingredients

650 gr desalted stockfish, 30 gr plain flour, 500 ml seed oil

Method

Clean the desalted stockfish and remove the skin delicately by pulling it from the tail (if, on the other hand, you have salted stockfish, you will have to soak it in water for at least three days to remove the salt). Carefully remove any bones using kitchen tweezers, especially for the smaller, more complicated ones!

Cut into pieces of about 3-4 cm thick and dip in flour.

Make sure both sides are covered in flour then fry in hot oil between 180° and 190°. Fry only a few pieces at a time, and it should take from 4 to 6 minutes depending on the size.

When they are golden coloured place on a piece of kitchen roll to drain the excess oil.

Serve the fried stockfish piping hot!

Photographs from Giallo Zafferano