Baccalà alla Napoletana is a Christmas Eve dish and an everyday dish at once. The salt cod arrives dried and stiff, preserved this way since the Northern European trade routes of the fifteenth century turned it into a pantry staple across Italy. Two days of soaking and it returns to life: pale, soft, tasting faintly of the sea it came from.
The Neapolitan sauce is a study in the sweet-and-sour combinations that define the cooking of Campania. Tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes layered with olives and capers, and then the counterpoint of pine nuts and raisins that pull the dish across the line from savory into something more complex. The combination is not accidental. It is very old.
We use Gusta sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil alongside the passata. They add concentrated sweetness that fresh tomatoes cannot. The pine nuts and raisins are not garnish: without them the dish is Campanian; with them it is Neapolitan.
Set servings and units first. You can change them anytime.
Soak the baccala: submerge the dried salt cod in a large bowl of cold water and refrigerate for 48 hours, changing the water every 8 to 12 hours. When fully soaked, taste a thin sliver: it should be mildly salty, not aggressively so. If it is still very salty, continue soaking for another 12 hours.
Drain the soaked baccala and pat dry with paper towels. Run a fingertip along the flesh and pull out any remaining bones with tweezers. Cut into roughly equal pieces, about 3 in wide.
Warm 45 ml of olive oil in a wide, deep skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic cloves and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove and discard the garlic.
Working in batches if needed, lightly brown the baccala pieces on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Use a wide spatula and turn carefully: the fish is delicate at this point. Transfer to a plate.
In the same pan, add the tomato passata and bring to a simmer. Stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, olives, capers, pine nuts, and raisins.
Return the baccala to the pan, nestling the pieces into the sauce. Cover and cook over low heat for 25 to 30 minutes. Turn once, carefully, halfway through.
Taste before seasoning: the fish and capers carry significant salt. Add black pepper. Scatter parsley over the top and serve with good bread to collect the sauce.
You made Baccalà alla Napoletana. Time to eat.
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The 48-hour soak is the recipe. Do not shortcut it. The fish should taste mildly seasoned before it goes in the pan. If it tastes aggressively salty before cooking, it will taste aggressively salty in the sauce, and there is no correcting it at that point.
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