Recipe of the week

One of the most famous foods of southern Italy is baccalà, or salt cod – fish that has been filleted fresh and then preserved in salt. Most Italian markets and fishmongers have large marble sinks in which baccalà is piled under trickling, cold water. In Britain, you are likely to be offered it dried. The salt cod must be soaked and rehydrated in fresh, cold water; it’s ready for cooking once it is white and the texture is puffy

Perpicaregna-style salt cod

Serves 4 450g salt cod 100ml olive oil 1-2 cloves garlic, peeled but whole 8 dried sweet green peppers

• Soak the salt cod in a bowl of water in the fridge for 24 hours, periodically changing the water. Drain well.

• Fill the bottom of a steamer with at least 1 inch of water. Cover and bring to the boil. Lay the cod on the steamer’s rack, cover again, and cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from the

pan, allow the fish to cool a little, then flake and remove the bones.

• Heat the oil in a frying pan with the garlic. Add the peppers and cook until crunchy. Remove and cut out the stem and the seeds. (Discard the garlic and oil.)

• Arrange the flakes of cod and the peppers on a platter and then serve.

Taken from The Silver Spoon: Naples & the Amalfi Coast, published by Phaidon at £24.95. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £22,

call 020-3176 3835 or visit www.theweek.co.uk/bookshop.