What it is
A lean-day preparation of soaked salted cod dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and fried dried sweet peppers, especially in Avellino and the Vallo di Diano.
Origin place card
This is inland Campania fish cookery: a dish where preserved cod and dried peppers reach mountain and valley kitchens far from the sea.
Verified history
The source frames it as one of the most traditional baccalà preparations and connects baccalà, like salted anchovies, to the principal fish resources of poorer inland and coastal households. Treat this as source-supported tradition/history from Regione Campania — Baccalà alla Perticatora; the current evidence does not independently establish a founder, precise origin date, first attestation, or archival origin beyond that source framing.
Local hypothesis
Its strength likely comes from a storage economy: salt cod, dried peppers and olive oil could travel through winter, Lent and vigil days without needing fresh fish.
Local legend / oral tradition
No miracle legend is documented in the official source; the oral layer to fieldwork is the household timing of soaking and the handling of cruschi peppers.
Ingredients
Baccalà already soaked/desalted, extra-virgin olive oil, dried sweet cornetto/sciscillone peppers, optional garlic, optional fresh parsley. Source-supported detail: Descrizione Preparazione a base di baccalà (merluzzo salato ed essiccato) condito con olio extravergine di oliva e peperoni essiccati dolci (cruschi).
Method
Wash the soaked baccalà, boil it in unsalted water, fry the dried peppers briefly in abundant extra-virgin olive oil, pass the boiled cod through the pepper oil, then serve with the hot peppers and optional parsley. Source-supported detail: Descrizione delle metodiche di lavorazione Ingredienti: baccalà precedentemente "sponzato" (spellato ed ammollato in acqua, con diversi cambi per eliminare il sale in eccesso); aglio (facoltativo); peperoni dolci essiccati tipo "cornetto" o "sciscillone" lavorazione: il baccalà viene lavato in acqua abbondante
Ritual / calendar
Cucina di magro: vigils and Lent, when meatless food needed to be sustaining rather than austere. Source-supported detail: L'uso del baccalà è sicuramente certificato fin dall'epoca alto-medioevale, con il diffondersi della pratica della "cucina di magro" abbinata alle vigilie ed alla Quaresima.
Why travel for it
Build this as an Avellino/Vallo di Diano winter and Lent field note: preserved fish, dry peppers, olive oil, mountain appetite.
Recreate-it pathway
Do not improvise exact quantities yet. Field-test soaking time, salt level and pepper-frying seconds before publishing a recipe card.
Editorial warning
Official descriptive source supports the page seed. Do not promote to final tested recipe until household/fieldwork variant and quantities are recovered.
Fieldwork questions
Recover named local cooks, household variants, exact quantities, equipment, occasion, and where it is still served today.
Photo brief
A shallow dish of white baccalà with glossy red cruschi peppers; shoot near a stone kitchen wall or with dried peppers hanging.