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Refreshing seafood salad recipe

Seafood salad recipe

This seafood salad recipe is little known beyond the Catalan borders. The special combination of salt cod, olives and tomatoes transforms it into a succulent seafood salad: As by the magic of the exquisite olive oil, the diamond of the Mediterranean diet.

For some peoples not used to eating salt cod regularly, it's hard to believe that a seafood salad recipe with salt cod as the main ingredient can be a gourmet delight. If the opinion of food writers Paula Wolfert and Colman Andrews is any indication, it certainly is.

If your raw materials are fresh and good quality as they should be, this summer salad recipe we call esqueixada de bacallà in Catalan can be a surprising delicacy. This seafood salad is refreshing and it's perfect for a lazy hot summer day or a beach picnic.

It goes without saying that you should desalt the salt cod properly, but this is easy. Here I give you instructions to desalt the salt cod for this seafood salad recipe.

After desalting the fish, you remove the skin and the bones, and finally shred the cod with your fingers. It is very important that you don't chop or slice the salt cod using a knife.

Esqueixada comes from esqueixar, to shred in English; bacallà means cod. At least this one time, everybody agrees: salt cod for esqueixada de bacallà has to be shredded with the fingers, no exceptions.

As usual, there are many variations of this seafood salad recipe. First, I wanted to give you the simplest recipe for esqueixada de bacallà I know, one that brings memories of happy childhood summers, those authentic Mediterranean summers...

Indeed, this seafood salad is delicious, and perhaps even challenging in its simplicity.

Ingredients for this seafood salad recipe

Serves 4 as appetizer

1 pound (450 g) salt cod – desalted, skinned, boned, and shredded with your fingers
4 medium-sized ripe tomatoes – coarsely chopped in bite size pieces
1/4 cup (50 g) black olives
Extra virgin olive oil – Catalan Arbequina olive oil is the best choice. Otherwise, choose a mild Greek or Italian extra virgin olive oil.
Salt
2 small pinches black pepper – optional

Seafood salad recipe preparation instructions

Preparation time: about 30 minutes.

Remove the skin and the bones of the salt cod. Shred it with the fingers.

Drain the shredded salt cod, and add it to a salad bowl.

Add the coarsely chopped tomatoes, and the black olives, and mix the three ingredients gently with a wooden spoon.

Add salt to taste. Add the pepper at this point if you choose to use it.

Dress generously with the extra virgin olive oil and mix gently.

The best way is to drizzle olive oil with a drizzle cruet or olive oil dispenser, and taste it until you feel it tastes right. Of course, if you don't have a cruet, the olive oil bottle will do. With some experience you'll get a feel for the amount of olive oil you like in your seafood salad recipe.

Serve cool.

Suggested Mediterranean recipes and meal ideas

This seafood salad recipe can act like a refreshing light appetizer in many Mediterranean diet menus, whether you are preparing an everyday meal or a festive meal. That said, here are two festive menu suggestion with the seafood salad recipe as appetizer.

Mediterranean diet menu A

Appetizer: Esqueixada de bacallà.

Main course: Paella.

Dessert: Pears with red wine.

Mediterranean diet menu B

Appetizer: Esqueixada de bacallà.

Main course: Fricandó.

Dessert: Seasonal fruit salad recipe

More delightful salad recipes

Orange and lettuce salad. There are variations of this juicy orange salad from Majorca to Sicily. This Mediterranean orange salad doesn't include fish like the seafood salad recipe above, it's completely vegetarian.