quote:

---

Originally posted by wcerto

I think Pordagee gets baccalao or sometin lidat. I know Puerto Ricans get baccalao. Same ting as baccala Dried, salted codfish. When time to use it, you gotta soak it for to get da salt out of it and to reconstitute the fish. Soak for 5 days in the fridge, changing water couple times a day to get the salt out of it.

Then in Paul's family tradition, for Christmas Eve, since a no eat meat day, we make a very plain tomato sauce, sinply onions, garlic, olive oil, parsley and canned tomatoes. Quick sauce. Only cook about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. The fish, flour, parsley, sweet paprika. Fry fish. Oh, also, fry some onions along with fish for give flavor. Put some fish into the sauce, breaking it up. Some fish, keep just fried fish, and have on plate with the pasta & sauce. Traditionally, use a long, rippled pasta called mafalda, which looks like about 1" wide lasagne noodles. No cheese on the pasta. Never cheese and fish together. So we take bread crumbs and parsley and paprika and saute the bread crumbs in olive oil until they are nicely toasted. We sprinkle that on the pasta & fish sauce instead of parmesan or romano. My girls nevah like baccala. I am not keen on true baccala myself because of the odor. So I use fresh cod fish instead of dried. Paul's ma always used dried. Now his sister has taken on the family tradition of using dried. I still make mine with fresh. Also get shrimps or lobstah for daughter who will no eat fish. The other daughter only eats pasta and plain sauce before fish is added, so I have to customize for all the particular tastes. I started out not being fond of baccala, but now it would not be Christmas without it.

I think because one year I was pregnant at Christmas time and did not know it yet, and was throwing up from the smell of the fish. Oooh, did it make me queasy. But I thought I musta had the flu. Instead, I had a baby!

---