Oh how I love you, you stinky little fish! The poor anchovy has such a bad rap, but I’m here to try to convince all you naysayers to rethink this salty treasure. Now I will fully admit that there are a lot of poor uses for anchovies. For instance, ordering that anchovy pizza from the local pizza house — probably not the best idea. Even a couple fillets on top of your Caesar salad can be a bit much, unless of course you get some really high quality mild white anchovies.
For my money the anchovy is best used when you can’t see it. Who doesn’t love Caesar salad? And what kind of Caesar salad doesn’t have some anchovies in the dressing? Actually, according to Wikipedia the traditional dressing doesn’t have any anchovies. Damn you Wikipedia! I don’t care what they say — good Caesar dressing has more than just Worcestershire sauce.
I love to sneak some anchovies into my pasta as well. You can build a sauce up around the little fish — chop a couple fillets up and let them cook down with some garlic and oil or butter in a pan. That’s pretty much all you need to do. Add some pasta and you have a meal. I made a great dish a couple weeks ago that had an olive and anchovy sauce. Lots of strong flavors, but it was really good.
I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Puttanesca sauce in this anchovy conversation. Mostly because I want to mention that in Italian, Puttanesca means “in the style of the whore.” Call me immature, but that always makes me giggle. This delicious sauce of tomatoes, capers and anchovies was apparently so quick and easy to make that many Italian ladies-of-the-night would make it in between … appointments.
In any case, if you’re one of the many people who think they hate anchovies, I would urge you to reconsider.
Do you have any favorite uses for this salty little fish?
Clacked by Bob Degon
on Jan 14, 2009 @ 22:14 EST5EDT
I hate anchovies but I love Caesar salad. Go figure.
“For my money the anchovy is best used when you can’t see it.” — I couldn’t agree more!
The first time I ever tasted anchovies in my life was when I made a pasta recipe that called for cooking them down in some oil until they were basically a brown soupy mush, then adding broccoli florets to the pan with black pepper and cooking about 5 minutes till tender (I now quick parboil the broccoli first), then adding kosher salt and a bit of crushed red peppers depending on your taste. Separately, cook your pasta (string type works best with this recipe), drain, add a Tbs of butter and toss, then the broccoli and anchovy sauce and toss, and then 1/4 romano and a 1/4 parm and toss one final time. Taste = HEAVEN!
The flavor of the pasta actually emboldened me so much that the next time I ordered pizza, I ordered it with anchovies. And then I pretty much threw the pizza out after I tasted it because those little fish tasted just nasty! But now I add anchovies, cooking them down, whenever a dish might be enhanced by them. For one, I’m a salt freak and they definitely add a salty flavor, but they also add a unique, rich flavor that you can’t get from any other ingredient.
I heart anchovies