Bacalao en Salsa Verde

Bacalao en salsa verde is Basque, a coastal dish of salt cod held in a pale sauce fragrant with garlic, white wine, and plenty of parsley. The parsley is what makes this salsa verde, green sauce. It is not bacalao al pil-pil, whose sauce relies on olive oil, garlic, chilli, and the cod's gelatin without wine, stock, or parsley. Close relatives, yes. The same dish, no.

The method that decides this one is the vaivén, a slow rocking of the pan once the cod goes in. Don't attack the fish with a spoon. Move the whole pan gently forward and back so the skin releases its gelatin and the oil, wine, and stock bind around the loins. A little flour gives the beginner a reliable start, but the rocking makes the sauce glossy rather than merely thick. Keep the heat low. Boiling gives you tight cod and a greasy edge.

Buy thick salt cod with its skin and desalt it patiently in the refrigerator. Ready-desalted frozen loins are perfectly useful if that is what you can find. If salt cod is impossible, use thick fresh hake and season it lightly; you will have merluza en salsa verde, another proper Basque dish, with a gentler flavour and less gelatin in the sauce. No hace falta haber pisado España. In the Margin beside this recipe I wrote two things: taste before salting, and shake more than you stir.