Bacalao salad served on oregano focaccia, with cream of garlic, herbs and spring onion

Ingredients

For 4 persons

For the bacalao salad you will need:

  • 500 grs thick pieces of bacalao
  • 2 large tomatoes
  • 12 cherry tomatoes, stewed
  • 1 onion, cut into fine strips
  • 8 black olives, cut into fine strips
  • 1 tbsp chopped parsley
  • salt and black pepper,wine vinegar
  • extra virgin olive oil (0.4°)

For the focaccia bread you will need:

  • 1 kilo cake flour
  • 500 ml water
  • 20 grs salt
  • 75 ml dry white wine
  • 75 ml olive oil
  • 50 grs fresh yeast
  • 2 tablesp fresh chopped oregano
  • coarse salt

For the cream of garlic you will need:

  • 125 grs peeled garlic
  • 75 ml olive oil
  • 100 ml dairy cream
  • salt

In addition, you will need:

  • watercress, spring onion/fresh chives, fresh oregano,
    curly endive hearts and lollo rosso
  • black pepper from the mill

Preparation

The oregano focaccia:

Dilute the yeast with some of the water. Put the flour, salt, wine, oregano and olive oil into a bowl and mix together, adding the water and yeast little by little. Knead for 10 minutes.

Let the dough repose in a recipient brushed with oil in the warmest place in the kitchen for 90 minutes. During that time the dough will have risen. Roll it out on a table or board dusted with flour and put it on a baking sheet brushed with oil, giving it the typical focaccia form and striving for a thickness of approx. 5 cm. Let it double in volume.

Spread some salt and drizzle a little oil over the bread. Bake at 220°C for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the thickness you have given the bread. Cool and put aside.

The cream of garlic:

Put the garlic in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and cook for 15 minutes. Drain and then simmer the garlic in the olive oil for 10 minutes. Pour off the oil and cook the garlic for 10 minutes in the dairy cream. Put into the food processor/blender, adding the oil slowly, in a thin thread-like trickle, to emulsify the cream. Season with salt and put aside.

The bacalao salad:

Separate or pluck apart the bacalo pieces with the fingers, removing skin and bones. Marinate in olive oil for 1 hour. Dress the onion with salt and vinegar. Put aside. Dice the large tomatoes and put in a bowl together with the stewed cherry tomatoes, the olives and the parsley. Add a few spoonfuls of the oil from the marinated bacalao and mix together. Add the bacalao and the dressed onion and blend with a light hand. Add the rest of the ingredients. Adjust the seasoning and set aside.

Finishing touches and presentation

Cut slices from the focaccia, toast them and rub with garlic. Arrange some salad on each slice of toast and serve accompanied by the cream of garlic, the spring onion/chives, the herbs and the dressed salad greens. Finish with black pepper from the mill.