Recipes

Bacalao a la Vizcaina (Spanish Cod)

Serves 4

| Prep Time: 30 min

| Cook Time: 15 min

| Total Time: 45 min

You may need: Spanish Paella

Discover The Recipe

During chilly winter months, our chefs like to dust off recipes that warm their family’s bellies and souls. Stews, soups, and easy but flavorful hot meals fit the bill. This Spanish Cod recipe (known as ‘Bacalao a la Vizcaina’) for a Basque-style salted cod bathed in a savory roasted red pepper sauce is a simple yet elegant dish and will surely find a place in your menu rotation for years to come. Roasted red peppers produce concentrated flavor with caramel and smoky notes sitting atop the herbaceous bell pepper and are delightful with the salted cod. Salt cod, a heavily salted form of cod that was used to preserve the fish for use throughout rough winter months, is the primary ingredient in authentic Bacalao a la Vizcaina recipe, but our chefs adapt to use fresh cod which is much more common in North America.

This recipe highlights flavors found in the Basque country of Northern Spain that runs into Southwestern France in the Pyrenees Mountains. Basque cuisine was taken to new heights by top chefs influenced by Basque techniques and rustic ingredients and made famous with endless Michelin starred restaurants in the region. While some country versions use other fresh vegetables to make a stew, our chefs opted for a pureed sauce for a savory, smooth fish pairing. Feel free to add your favorite chopped veggies and blend or not for a more rustic approach.

Ingredients

Spanish Cod Sauce:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 small yellow onion
4 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp Piquant Post Spanish Paella
2 roma tomatoes
12 oz roasted red peppers (or ~4 whole roasted red peppers)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
Bacalao a la Vizcaina (Spanish Cod):
1.5 lb cod (or 4 filets)
1/2 tsp salt
½ cup flour
2 Tbsp olive oil
Lemon wedges (optional for garnish)

Notes

Alternatively, use a hand blender to blend the sauce in the pan.

We used roma tomatoes, but any tomatoes will do! You can also use a can of chopped tomatoes.

Optional ingredients add a little character and flavor but don’t sweat it if you don’t have them.

Instructions

Pat the cod dry with a paper towel and cut into 4 filets. Season with salt, and set aside for 10 mins. Place flour in a shallow bowl and dredge each filet with flour.

Roughly chop onion, garlic, tomatoes and roasted red peppers. Heat olive oil over Med heat in a large skillet. Sauté onion and garlic for 3-4 mins. Add Piquant Post Spanish Paella spice and sauté for 1 min, until fragrant. Add tomatoes and roasted red peppers and sauté until tomatoes are soft. Simmer for 5-7 mins to cook down. Set aside for 8-10 mins to cool enough to blend. Place in a blender and blend until smooth. Add 1 Tbsp of water at a time to blender if needed to liquify.

Using the pan that cooked the sauce, heat olive oil over Med heat. Add filets and cook 3-4 mins per side, until golden and cooked to desired doneness.

Add ½ cup red pepper sauce to each plate and place cod on top of the sauce. Garnish with pepper, parsley and lemon.

Alternatives & Substitutions

We recommend cod for this dish, but feel free to substitute with a white fish variety of choice, or use shrimp and/or scallops.
Try using Spanish Paella in our Paella Mixta, or making a Spanish Seafood Fudeua or Paprika Shrimp. How about our vegan Tomates Farcies?
Not a seafood lover? Try our Spanish Paella in Chicken Pintxo, Spanish Chicken Skewers.
For vegans/vegetarians, try our vegan Summer Vegetable Paella for a plant-based take on the Spanish classic! Or, use Spanish Paella blend to make this Spiced Oven-Roasted Tofu.
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