Spanish
Bacalao a la Vizcaina (Salt Cod in Basque Red Pepper Sauce)
Bacalao a la Vizcaina (Salt Cod in Basque Red Pepper Sauce) is Spanish home cooking, eaten at lunch. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb dried salt cod
- 4 dried choricero peppers
- 2 large onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 tomato
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp salt
How to cook it
- Soak the salt cod in cold water for 24 to 36 hours, changing the water two or three times, then drain, flake it into large pieces, and discard any bones.
- Soak the dried choricero peppers in warm water for 30 minutes until soft, then scrape the flesh from the skins with a spoon and discard the skins.
- Heat the olive oil in a wide pan and cook the chopped onion and garlic over low heat for about 20 minutes, stirring often, until deeply softened and sweet.
- Stir in the chopped tomato, the scraped pepper flesh, the paprika, and the bay leaf, and simmer for 15 minutes until the sauce turns a deep red and thickens.
- Blend the sauce until smooth, return it to the pan, nestle in the flaked cod, and simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes so the fish warms through without breaking apart.
- Taste before adding any salt since the cod already carries its own, fish out the bay leaf, and ladle the cod and its sauce into shallow bowls.
Serve it with
A Spanish lunch is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Bacalao a la Vizcaina (Salt Cod in Basque Red Pepper Sauce), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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Something to sip
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The cooked vegetable
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What it is eaten with
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Something cool and fresh
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Bacalao a la Vizcaina (Salt Cod in Basque Red Pepper Sauce) carries fish. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | Yes | Ajoblanco (Chilled Malaga Almond and Garlic Soup) |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Bands, not numbers. Dinejot does not weigh anybody's food, so it says light, moderate or hearty and stops there. This dish was read and set by hand.
- Calorie band
- Moderate
- Protein
- High
- Protein quality
- Complete
- Food groups it covers
- Meat or fish and Vegetables
- How this was set
- Hand audited
When to cook it
Bacalao a la Vizcaina (Salt Cod in Basque Red Pepper Sauce) takes about 60 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch. Nothing in the calendar rules it out, so it is a year round dish.
Watch someone make it
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More to cook
Cooked from the same things
Other dishes built on cod, tomato, and onion.
From the same kitchens
More cooking from northern Spain.
Does the same job on the plate
Swap any of these in when you want a meal the same shape.
Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.