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Show notes
In this episode, I talk about how Italy, a peninsula literally surrounded by fresh fish, became one of the largest importers of preserved fish in the world. I recount the fascinating story of a 15th-Century shipwreck, for which eye-witness accounts have survived, which stranded a group of Venetians thousands of miles from home. What they found there was to change the course of Italian cuisine for centuries to come.
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The episode includes:
- What baccalà is and where it comes from
- The difference between stockfish and salt cod
- The story of the shipwreck of the Querina, a Venetian merchant ship, in 1432
- How the discovery of Newfoundland in 1497 changed the game
- The first published Italian recipe with baccalà
- How and why Italy came under the influence of Spain
- The origins of the name
- Where baccalà is eaten today
- Different regional recipes using baccalà
Resources
Official tourist site for the Lofoten archipelago.
Producing stockfish in Lofoten.
A short film about Røst the island where the survivors of the Querina ended up.
A short film about a 2014 opera telling the story of Pietro Querini