There are some foods that are wonderful and then there are some foods that are made exponentially more wonderful when they are transformed into a left over dish. With the base main meal being Baked Codfish Casserole (Bacalhau Assado), Torta de Bacalhau is one of those foods. Much like how people quite often calculate their Thanksgiving dinner to not only include enough turkey and stuffing for the dinner itself, but to also account for a sufficient amount of leftovers, most Portuguese people do the same with their Bacalhau Assado. On Thanksgiving night or the next morning there is really nothing like biting into that Thanksgiving turkey and stuffing sandwich topped with just a bit of cranberry… Well, with Bacalhau Assado, there is nothing like frying up some left over casserole into an omelet and adding in a nice slice of cheese and serving it up on a nice fresh pop-seco roll.
In Portuguese Torta is meant to mean any leftover food that has been folded into egg and fried up and then stuffed into a sandwich. In my opinion, Torta de Bacalhau is the king of that particular type of sandwich. Not to say that a turkey dinner is not grande and wonderful, but that sandwich the next day is a meal all on its own. The same is true for the Codfish Omelet Sandwich!
You will need to start by gathering about 2 cups of leftover codfish casserole.
Place that on a cutting board.
Dice it up a bit into even smaller pieces.
Get 10″ non-stick skillet ready with a fair amount of olive oil. Heat over med/high heat.
Place 1/2 your chopped casserole into the preheated skillet. This recipe will yield 4 sandwiches, but to keep it manageable, it needs to be done in two stages.
While the codfish is reheating in the pan… Crack 6 eggs into a bowl. Normally I like to add cream or milk to an omelet, not here.
Vigorously beat eggs.
Move the contents around a bit until you have some caramelazation.
Add in a small pinch of salt, just enough to season the egg… remember the cod is salty itself.
When it gets to this stage, its time for the flip. “Have courage” as Julia Child would say. The reason we used so much olive oil was so this step would not overwhelm you.
Once flipped, cook for another minute and remove from pan.
Add on two slices of whatever cheese suits your fancy, I prefer good old-fashioned melty American cheese.
Split down the middle.
You need to act quickly because we want the cheese to melt in while the egg is still hot.
Gently fold the egg up and over the cheese.
Once you’ve done this on both, they are ready for bread.
A pop-seco (Portuguese bread roll) is the best choice here. You want a medium bodied bread with a crispy crust.
Slice open while leaving it still attached.
Add the omelet right onto the bread.
Serve immediately!
Recipe for Torta de Bacalhau:
(serves 4)
2 cups prepared Baked Codfish Casserole
1/4 cup olive oil
4 slices American cheese
pinch of salt
4 Portuguese pop-seco bread rolls
Directions:
Chop prepared codfish casserole. Add 1/2 to a preheated 10″ non-stick skillet with olive oil. Fry codfish casserole over medium heat. Beat 6 eggs. Once codfish casserole is heated through and starting to caramelize, add in 1/2 egg mixture, sprinkle with a small pinch of salt. Cook 3/4 way through, then flip. Remove from skillet. Add two slices of cheese to one side of the round omelet. Divide in half and gently fold cooked egg over the cheese. Serve in fresh bread roll. Serve hot. Enjoy!