Nice Spread: Brandade

A classic comfort food that's super flexible and forgiving

David Lebovitz

posted recently about brandade, which reminded me that I wanted to talk about it too—though in a characteristically open-ended way that allows for a lot of improvising within the basic framework. Besides being easy and delicious, this Southern French recipe (I believe it originated in Marseilles) also offers a lot of enticing possibilities for reusing leftovers in an efficient and transformative way. It’s also seriously good to eat, with massive comfort food vibes and deep umami (especially if you make it my way). Best of all, brandade shines brightest when spread on proper crusty bread.

The traditional recipe calls for de-salted salt cod (achieved by soaking a fillet in several changes of water overnight or longer) cooked and mashed with potatoes, butter, and often cream to make a hearty and savory (and inexpensive; this is peasant food) paste that’s baked in the oven until nicely browned. Awesome stuff, and super easy.

Salt cod isn’t that hard to find, but it’s not exactly the historically significant staple here in the US that it is in Europe. So I want to walk you through a few variations that might fit more seamlessly into your existing cooking (and shopping) flow, and which do not require de-salting any fish. (Which is not much harder than soaking beans overnight, but it’s another thing to do). We’re all about easy here at ToB, and especially about artfully finding ways to connect meals to each other throughout the week.

The beauty of brandade is that it works as a dip, an appetizer, a perfect lunch (with a green salad) or an entire meal if you’ve got good bread, some pickles, and a vegetable or two alongside. It’s freaking delicious, and infinitely malleable. The leftovers even make incredible croquettes! The version in the photo up top took about 25 minutes start to finish, and 20 of those minutes involved baking it in my toaster oven.