Fish and sausage?! Does that sound weird to you?
If you’re Portuguese, you’re saying, oh no, not weird at all. The Portuguese are longtime masters of mixing seafood and pork. One of the most famous examples is Porco com Amêijoas à Alentejana, or Alentejo-Style Pork with Clams. That’s going on my “recipes to try” Pinterest board. Another popular dish, Amêijoas na Cataplana, is made with clams and sausage. It’s cooked in a cataplana, a pot with a hinged lid that is sealed with a clamp during cooking, and looks a bit like a clam shell
I found this recipe on the Eating Well website. The original recipe calls for 1-1/4 pounds of cod and only 2 ounces of chorizo. I didn’t want that much cod because I was only making dinner for two. Even though I used less cod, I kept all the other ingredient the same, and increased the sausage. The original recipe calls for chorizo which would have been great, but my market didn’t have any, so I used andouille instead. The andouille’s spiciness was perfect for this recipe. If you’re in Portuguese-American country (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, California), linguica would also be fantastic.
For sides, I roasted asparagus with some garlic and then tossed it with lemon juice and zest once it was done. I also parboiled cubes of sweet potato and then sautéed them with onions and smoked paprika. I softened the onions before adding the sweet potatoes to the pan.
Holy moly, everything was so good. I will make this dish again and again. I may go lighter on the sausage to make it healthier, or try to find a chicken sausage with that same type of heat and flavor. You can tell from the photo that my dish was quite liquidy. That was a surprise because it wasn’t that liquidy when it went into the oven. Maybe I didn’t need those extra tablespoons of wine.
I highly recommend this one!
Baked Cod, Sausage and White Beans
You’ll need a medium saucepan, baking dish large enough for your fish fillets and deep enough for sauce on top, and foil.
- 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 5 ounces andouille (2 sausages) or chorizo, diced
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 cup dry white wine, divided
- 1 15-ounce can great northern or cannellini beans, rinsed
- Salt, to taste
- 3/4 pounds Pacific cod, cut into 2 pieces
- Freshly ground pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 425°F. Coat baking dish with cooking spray.
Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallot, sausage and thyme and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and 1/4 cup wine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are broken down and the wine is almost evaporated, 2 to 4 minutes. Stir in beans and salt, to taste, and remove from the heat.
Sprinkle fish with salt and pepper, and place it in the prepared baking dish. Top each piece of fish with equal amounts of the tomato mixture. Pour the remaining 1/4 cup wine (or less, if you wish, I only put in a few tablespoons) into the pan and cover the pan with foil.
Bake until the fish is just cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve the fish with the sauce spooned over the top.
Original recipe: Baked Cod with Chorizo & White Beans, Eating Well
