Samfaina, or sanfaina, is a very typical vegetable recipe from Catalonia and some areas of the Valencian Community. It is a stir-fried vegetable dish very similar to ratatouille, Spanish pisto or Basque piperrada, with the difference that here courgette and eggplant are the main ingredients. In Catalonia, it is the perfect accompaniment to meat or fish dishes, such as cod in this case.
This symphony of diced vegetables sautéed in olive oil is a flavoursome dish that is very easy to prepare. The trick to combining it with meat or fish is to cook them together with the samfaina, first cooking them separately and then giving them the final touch in the frying pan where the sofrito is prepared. A culinary luxury.
Samfaina. | Shutterstock
Ingredients for the samfaina:
- Desalted cod loins (as many as you like).
- 30 g of wheat flour
- 1 red pepper
- 1 green pepper
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 eggplant
- 1 courgette
- 4 tomatoes
- 1 red onion
- 1 bay leaf
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt
- Water
How to make the samfaina:
- First, peel the onion and garlic cloves and wash all the vegetables. After drying them, cut them into cubes and set aside.
- Heat the olive oil (four tablespoons) in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic cloves and peppers and cook for five minutes.
- Then add the onion and let it fry for another five minutes. Next, add the eggplant and courgette, cover the pan and cook for a further ten minutes.
- Stir all the ingredients in the pan well and add the tomato. Also add a little salt and the bay leaf. Cover the frying pan again while everything fries for twenty minutes.
- Meanwhile, in another pan with plenty of oil, prepare the cod. Put the flour on a plate and coat each loin in it. Fry them on both sides and, when you take them out, leave them on kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil.
- Back to the samfaina, add a little water to the pan to make it juicier. Stir well and leave on the heat for a couple of minutes. Then place each loin of cod in the frying pan so that it soaks well in the sauce. Leave to cook together for a few minutes and your samfaina with cod is ready.
