salt cod mousse on polentine and Parmisan coupelles

The challenge of this month is the cod fish, a typical recipe of Livorno, a beautiful town in Italy.  The two requied ingredients were cod fish and tomato, so I decided to assemble them for a very fresh mousse to soften the strong taste of cod fish boiling it in milk and mixing then to ricotta cheese, with the addition of typical little tomatoes called "datterino", similar in the shape to a light bulb. So these are the result: fresh appetizers fit also for the forthcoming Christmas holidays.

Ingredients for about 4 persons:

• 400g desalted cod
• 100g ricotta cheese
• a small bunch of parsley
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 6/7 tomatoes Datterini
• 150g of grated Parmesan cheese
• 500g of corn polenta (the one you buy in packs)
• 1/2 lt  milk
• chive

1. Rinse well the cod and remove residual plugs. Cut into chunks and cook in the milk over low heat for about 25 minutes with 2 teaspoons of ginger. Meanwhile on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, make circles of Parmesan with a tablespoon: you'll get 6 of them.  Widen lightly and bake at 200° for about 5/7 minutes, pay attention that they don't  burn. Turn the circles upside down over little cups  and let cool upside down so that they take the form of little baskets.  

2. Chop the parsley, cut the tomatoes into tiny pieces, season with just little of parsley. Drain the cod from milk but keep a few tablespoons of milk to blend. Add the ricotta and stir into the mixture with chopped parsley. Cook the polenta cut into squares or grill it in the oven for about 30 minutes.

3. Arrange the polenta and Parmesan baskets on a platter, make quenelles with the mousse of salt cod using two teaspoons and put them over the baskets and the little polenta. Decorate with datterino and chives. 

Use the left over mousse for the pappardelle.