brandade

Also known as brandade de morue (or brandada de bacallá or brandada de bacalhau in Occitan), this dish is popular not only in France but across the north Mediterranean, especially in winter.

It’s made of salt cod pieces mixed with olive oil in its simplest form, although lemon juice and maybe garlic, parsley etc are often added. It’s sold in markets all across the south of France.

The name is derived from the Provençal word brandar ‘to stir’. In Nîmes they make brandade nîmoise, in which the cod is completely mixed up with the olive oil to make a paste, then topped with gratin potatoes and baked. In the Basque Lands they like to stuff brandade in piquillos; others use it to stuff courgette blossoms or make croquettes, etc.

Often (especially in the frozen food counter) cooked potatoes are added to make brandade de morue parmetière gratinée ready to pop in the oven.