THE ASSERTIVE ANCHOVY.
Unusually useful and essential, the anchovy offers perhaps the most flavor punch per cupboard real estate of any pantry item.
A small, common and oily fish,
anchovies today are typically cured and preserved in oil or under salt, the former more practical in its use and consequently more widely available in English-speaking geographies.
Their fresher, lighter and more noble iterations preserved in vinegar or oil go by different names- boquerones in Spain or alici in Italy – and in keeping with their princely rank are less exploitable in the kitchen.
The anchovy and anchovy-flavoured products have considerably declined in popularity since their post-war heyday, despite their notable contribution to a number of kitchen cupboard stalwarts, . A conspicuous exception is Worcestershire Sauce, tragically most likely owing to the fact that its composition has prompted little curiosity in its nearing 200 years of existence. Made of anchovies and tamarind, this fermented liquid condiment too has seen better days than the present. Though remaining reliably indispensable to a Welsh Rarebit or a Bloody Mary.
Connoisseurs lean towards the anchovy left on the bone and preserved in salt. These are not easy to find outside of the Mediterranean and do not travel or keep easily, though for all-round purposes and economy are hard to surpass
.
The keen cook can do worse than picking these up at a Mediterranean food market before boarding home and immediately decanting them into a glass jar and submerging in oil once through the front door. Like this they will keep for months. (In some kitchens even years.)
Perhaps the most sophisticated incarnation of the anchovy – a relative mystery even to its compatriots – is the Italian colatura degli alici, a complex sort of extract dripping derived slowly and surely. A high delicacy, it is superb used raw in a simple pasta (with chili, lemon and garlic), though to be trusted only in the most expert hands, as most simple feats. It may also be added in small drops to flavor a mayonnaise or to add a poised punch to a bechamel or souffle.
The anchovy might fetch more fans firmly considered a seasoning rather than a fish, under this guise forgiven or even embraced for its prominent pungency and slippery, compact constitution. It certainly has more in common with an elegant, oily olive than the crowd-pleasing cod fish.
A single sliver of anchovy can go a very long way. Cooked, its strong, fishy taste dependably dissolves, infusing its pan-fellows with a multitude of layers and depths of flavour. In this way it shares its gastro super-powers with (and is indeed a good loose substitute for) the home-made stock – both have the capacity to transform a languid potato into something considered, quietly elegant.
The anchovy’s high status in the larder also no doubt owes to its long shelf-life, making it a handy fall-back when there is nothing fresh that can be rustled up.
Indeed in a time in post-war history when frugality was the most celebrated and sought-out characteristic in a potential spouse, a generation of Italian wives were pursued and prized for their ability to deftly knock-out a spaghetti alle acciughe at a moment’s notice - irrespective of their husband’s social or economic standing.
No definite recipe exists here, the hallmarks are: lemon rind, parsley, breadcrumbs and garlic – and the usual wizardry with cooking water and olive oil.
Unrivalled in its savouriness and ability to enhance the flavor of other fish, meats and vegetables, the anchovy can be combined with an immodestly long list of ingredients -
It pairs surprisingly well with meat, e.g. in the tuna sauce laid on top of slices of cold veal in the Italian vitello tonnato, or with chicken, e.g. in the salad dressing for a classic Caesar salad.
Many dips and condiments benefit from one or two anchovies pounded with pestle and mortar as their base – the salsa verde, bagna cauda, anchoide. All of these make wonderful sauces for crisp, raw vegetables, white fish, or as seemingly effortless but rather glamorous egg toppings.
The Italians are partial to flavouring broccoli or cauliflower with anchovies, dissolved together in a pan with chilly and garlic, once parboiled in generously salted water. Tomatoes are another great combination, as are capers. And they make a very welcome addition to a posh potato gratin.
Insalata di puntarelle.
The anchovy also forms one half of a full meal of a salad, the insalata di punatrelle – an abnormally simple but exquisitely delicious and sustaining salad of two ingredients: puntarelle and anchovies, dressed in olive oil, white wine vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper.
A marvellous, inspired - and most delighting - combination is the German/Jewish way of eating schnitzel: topped with a few neat, parallel slips and served with a side of plentifully fluffed mashed potatoes, and ‘gravy’ left to individual discretion.
The anchovy’s easiest and quickest deployment however is as a simple, old-fashioned hors d'oeuvre, in its resplendent, untimid entirety: as proliferate the city of Venice in the manner of cicchetti. The Cantine del Vino già Schiavi has a dozen variations with anchovies alone, the most testing of which is with a pickled onion, a caper and nothing else.
It has been known to reduce grown men to a whimper. It is excellent with a classic Negroni.
Delicious with –
egg, almonds, mozzarella, burrata, ricotta
white fish, tuna, chicken, veal, lamb
tomato, cauliflower, broccoli, potato, radish, chicory
capers, chilies, garlic, parsley, lemon, olives, rosemary, sage
A RECIPE.
The most refined and reliable must be the ‘pane, burro e acciughe’, in English: ‘anchovies on toast’. Again punching above its weight in terms of simplicity, delicacy and cost – this is exactly as name suggests.
1. Portion small pieces of bread
A variety of options can do, such as milk bread, brioche, stoneground rye or sourdough; toasted or not. Even crackers (made with olive oil, but not water).
2. Spread with butter
The temperature and consistency of which will depend on your choice of bread – a lighter, softer bread will do best matched with gentler, room temperature butter. A coarser bread such as a toasted sourdough could do with slates of cold cut butter, or otherwise entirely melted into the toast. You must experiment.
3. Lay on a single sliver of anchovy on each piece. If your anchovies are large roll them up in a pretty pinwheel.
You may also choose to flavour your butter, e.g. with lemon or parsley. At Roscioli in Rome, a most highly-esteemed culinary spot, this dish is served with sweet butter flavoured with vanilla from Madagascar.
Postscript.
Best anchovy pizzas -
A “Van Gogh”: a white pizza, with buffalo mozzarella, courgette flowers and anchovies: at Le Specialita’, a Milanese institution where the pizzas are on the thin side
A Marinara with anchovies, where the anchovies are baked: in the city of Naples
A Margherita with raw mar Cantabrico anchovies neatly laid on top: served up so deliciously by Sergio at Franco Manca in Salina, in the Eolian Islands of Sicily