An elegant dish that celebrates a simple and humble ingredient such as cod, which is increasingly becoming the centerpiece of Michelin-starred recipes such as this Cod, Almond Ricotta, Green Beans, and Ponzu Sauce recipe, created by Luigi Salomone, chef of the Michelin-starred restaurant Re Santi e Leoni in Nola, located in the province of Naples.
For Luigi Salomone, the full-bodied texture of polenta or stale bread is provided by the almond element, which, when whipped, becomes a fatty, enveloping sauce. Conversely, the fish gives the dish a satisfying meatiness, an elegant but decisive taste resulting in palatable emotions that taste of history and tradition.
A custom that for the chef is, first of all, a memory linked to the holidays and the territory: “When I was a child I did not even want to see cod or smell it, at Christmas my grandmother would bring it to the table and I would turn away. Then over the years I grew to love it,” says Luigi Salomone, ” The inspiration for this dish comes from my mother, who used to make it in a salad with arugula, green beans, and potatoes.
Recipe Ingredients for four people
Procedure
For the broth
Toast the bones in the oven, cover with water, and add soybeans, sugar, and vinegar. Boil for 15 minutes. Steep seaweed. Strain and add lemon juice.
For the almond emulsion
Place the almonds and 100 g water in a pacojet. Freeze and pass 3 times.
For the cod
Place the fish in the container and cook at 56 degrees for 10 minutes.
For crispy skin
Blanch the skins in water, pat dry, and dehydrate in the oven at 60 for 12 hours. Fry in sunflower oil until crispy.
For the green beans
Clean and blanch green beans in water.
The “salt and sugar” wine pairing
Sommelier Salvatore Matarazzo recommends the ideal wine pairing with a wine from the Ligurian sea: the Rossese di Dolceacqua Maccario Dringenberg. Elegance, lightness, little structure, and light red color are the initial impact characteristics. Located in Val Nervia and Val Verbone in western Liguria, Giovanna Maccario and her husband Goez Dringenberg head the winery that currently has 3.5 hectares under organic management with a production of 24 thousand bottles a year.
The Rossese opens on the nose with a bouquet of berries, spices, and flowers and has a very dynamic drinkability thanks to its freshness, which makes it an ideal wine pairing. “It goes nicely with this fish, cooked at a low temperature, thanks to the fruit that goes against the savory protein. Its dynamic drinkability and balance go well with the vegetal side and the almond ricotta,” says the sommelier.