Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá

Traditionally prepared for every Christmas Eve dinner in Portugal, bacalhau à Gomes de Sá is a festive dish made with salt cod, potatoes, and onions. Those key ingredients are layered in a pan, topped with hard-boiled egg slices, baked, then garnished with olives and chopped parsley. The dish is typically dressed with olive oil and flavored with chopped garlic. It is believed that the dish was invented by José Luis Gomes de Sá, who was the son of a well-off 19th-century cod trader. The new dish was derived from bolinhos de bacalhau (cod fish cakes), only without the flour, so José, who had financial difficulties at the time, sold the recipe to the owner of Restaurante Lisbonense, and the dish quickly gained popularity throughout Portugal.