When Saga Farmann arrives in Genoa at the end of April, it sails in the service of exports. Under the auspices of the Norwegian Seafood Council, the ship will host important customers — and the dish served will be, naturally, the world’s best bacalao!
By Eivind Luthen
The author holding one of Norway’s oldest trade goods — stockfish from Lofoten!
It All Started with a Shipwreck…
In 1432, the Venetian merchant Pietro Querini was shipwrecked in the English Channel. The lifeboat brought the survivors to the island of Røst in northern Norway. There, the islanders took them in, and during the winter, Querini developed a taste for dried fish — which was pretty much all there was to eat.
When Querini returned to his hometown, he brought with him a load of stockfish. This is considered Norway’s first major export success. But as early as the 800s, the Vikings were “exporting” dried fish to England, Denmark, and other countries.
Still, there is no doubt that both on Røst and in Vicenza (near Venice), Querini is regarded as the father of Italian stockfish.
Premium fish drying on Røst, where the export adventure once began and is still alive today.
Stockfish is made from skrei — a type of Arctic cod, known by the Vikings as skreid, meaning “the fish that travels,” implying long journeys. And travel it has — from the Barents Sea to Lofoten, and, as a refined product, even farther: in modern times globally, but especially to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Nigeria, and Brazil. For centuries, stockfish — in the form of bacalao — has been a staple food for millions.
It was sun and wind that created stockfish, and it is sun and wind that have brought Saga Farmann to Genoa. This type of ship was the very workhorse of the Viking Age and the Middle Ages, connecting Norway to the wider world and linking our long coastline. Today, Saga Farmann functions as an ambassador for maritime history but also represents cutting-edge technology. With its four electric motors, Saga Farmann is the most modern Viking ship in the world.
Michelin Cuisine
Stockfish is still very popular in Italy, though today it is considered a delicacy. The Michelin-starred restaurant “The Cook” in Genoa offers a signature dish called “Stoccafisso Antica Genova e non solo.”
It was precisely in the Mediterranean countries that stockfish evolved into the savory bacalao, with tomato sauce, olives, potato slices, onions, and much more. But our ancestors preferred to simmer pieces of cod in salted water. Often, they used stockfish more simply: by knocking off flakes of it — like potato chips.
Baccalà alla Vicentina – declared Italy’s national dish in 2010.
Without stockfish as provisions, it’s hard to imagine the long Viking voyages. Stockfish provided nutritious food with no expiration date. This made it possible to survive long journeys to Greenland, Russia, and deep into Europe — even to America, 500 years before the Genoese Columbus set out westward. I’m tempted to think that stockfish was part of the provisions aboard Columbus’ ships too — after all, he knew the product well from his hometown, where it was imported from Norway.
It’s entirely possible that the Klåstad ship — of which Saga Farmann is a replica — transported stockfish and other goods between transshipment ports like Kaupang and Hedeby around the year 1000.
Opening the Door to Europe
Stockfish is a true energy bomb, consisting of nearly 80% protein after drying. Viking ships were relatively small and carried many crew members. Feeding everyone during week-long sea journeys was a challenge. The solution was stockfish — one kilo of dried fish becomes five kilos of food when rehydrated. And unlike salted fish, stockfish can be soaked in seawater. Thus, the Vikings could feed large crews with light, space-saving provisions. Fifty kilos of stockfish turned into 250 kilos of protein-rich food — perfect for the strong men who rowed or manned the sails across open seas.
The Vikings produced much more stockfish than they needed themselves. It was stockfish that opened the door to Europe, and Norwegians were the first to transport it abroad. In the 1300s, stockfish accounted for 80% of Norway’s national exports. In Catholic times, demand for stockfish increased significantly, as it was a common fasting food.
The word tørrfisk (dried fish) comes from the Old Norse stokkfiskr, meaning “stick fish.” Querini referred to the cod as stocfisi. Perhaps the Italians already had some familiarity with the name stocfisi? Stockafix is mentioned in the cookbooks of Roman chef Marcus Gavius Apicius, who lived in the first century AD. The recipes were written in Latin. Whether this refers to cod is uncertain, but it’s an intriguing thought.
A sea of stockfish drying on racks.
To follow the history of cod is to follow the formation of the Norwegian nation. It was the income from cod — specifically dried cod — that made possible the establishment of the church, civil service, and monarchy. The construction of Nidaros Cathedral, Norway’s national sanctuary, was funded by stockfish. Without it, there might have been hardly no population in Northern Norway at all. It was stockfish that made Bergen one of the largest trading centers in Northern Europe. Today, stockfish holds the same status in Norway as Parma ham does in Italy — both are the result of fine craftsmanship and long air-drying traditions.
2,000 Years of Italian-Norwegian Relations
Little known to most is that the modern stockfish trade was developed by a shipping company tied to Tønsberg, Saga Farmann’s home port. The annual bacalao festival in Tønsberg is one of the Viking town’s most popular events.
Dropping anchor in Columbus’ hometown of Genoa invites reflection — it’s not the first time Viking sailors “met Columbus.” In 1893, Viking, a replica of the Gokstad ship, sailed to Chicago for the World’s Fair. A replica of Columbus’ Santa Maria also made the trip. Both ships symbolized the discovery of America.
The Italy–Norway connection holds many stories. It was the airship of Umberto Nobile that enabled the flight over the North Pole in 1926 — an expedition led by Roald Amundsen, who has a statue in Tønsberg. And the global citizen Thor Heyerdahl from Larvik chose Italy as his second homeland. As we speak, a new replica of the Gokstad ship is being built in Tønsberg.
It is clear that Italy, as a cultural nation, has been inspiring to ambitious Norwegians — often artists eager to escape the stony soil of home: Henrik Ibsen, Sigrid Undset, Henrik Wergeland, Edvard Grieg, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Camilla Collett, and Jonas Lie.
But the Vikings also sought out Italy — sometimes to raid, other times to serve in the Roman army, or as pilgrims and crusaders. One of them was Erling Skakke, who built the largest round church in the North — Norway’s only one — in Tønsberg.
Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the bronze sculpture of the Capitoline Wolf, the primal symbol of the Roman Empire, stands in Tønsberg — the only one in Scandinavia!
That Saga Farmann drops anchor in Genoa is thus part of a long and fruitful relationship between Norway and Italy.