Flavors · Venice

Baccalà mantecato

Air-dried cod, soaked, cooked and whipped with olive oil until it becomes a light white cream. It is served over polenta or bread in Venice’s bacari and links the city to the story of the navigator who brought this fish from Norway.

Traditional dish from Venice, Vêneto

Also known as: bacalà mantecato, baccalà mantecato alla veneziana

Updated November 2026

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Baccalà mantecato — Venice, Italy — Baccalà mantecato

Baccalà mantecato — Venice, Italy

In Venice and the Veneto, baccalà refers to stoccafisso, the air-dried, unsalted cod from the Lofoten Islands in Norway. The fish is soaked for days, with the water changed repeatedly, until it softens. Then it is cooked, freed from skin and bones, and whipped with a wooden spoon or whisk while olive oil is added in a thin stream, until it turns into a fluffy, pale cream. It is seasoned with salt, pepper, and sometimes garlic and parsley. Mantecato comes from the Spanish manteca, meaning butter, because of its texture, but the traditional recipe does not include butter or cream.

Venice’s connection to this fish is attributed to Pietro Querini, a Venetian merchant whose ship wrecked in 1431 and whose survivors reached the island of Røst in the Lofoten in 1432. There he encountered the wind-dried fish and, returning to Venice at the end of 1432, brought specimens with him. Italy remains one of the main destinations for stoccafisso from the Lofoten.

A Venetian confraternity, founded in 2001, codified the recipe for baccalà mantecato. In the bacari it is served as a cicchetto, a spoonful atop a grilled slice of polenta or bread, accompanied by a glass of wine.

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Where it comes from

Venice , Vêneto
Venetian preparation of air-dried cod, linked to the story of the Venetian navigator Pietro Querini and served in the city’s bacari.

Ingredients

Stoccafisso (air-dried cod), olive oil, salt and pepper; sometimes garlic and parsley. Polenta or bread to serve.

How it is eaten

On grilled slices of polenta or bread, as a cicchetto or starter.

When it is eaten

Year-round, in bacari and as a starter; very present at year-end festivities.

Your questions

Questions about Baccalà mantecato

Does baccalà mantecato contain butter?

In the traditional recipe, no. The cream forms by whipping the cooked fish with olive oil.

Is baccalà in Venice the same as salted cod?

No. In Venice and the Veneto, baccalà means stoccafisso, the air-dried, unsalted cod.

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