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When I was finally exposed to anchovies on a pizza, I liked them, but I understood how anybody who hates fishy things would find them to be an abomination.
Settling in France as a young adult, I discovered anchovies on salade niçoise which seemed to be another good use for them, always with parsimony, of course. There is also pissaladière which is an anchovy tart along the Mediterranean coast -- it can be excellent if you have a sodium deficiency.
At the moment, the current fad is marinated anchovy fillets with herbs and olive oil, which you eat with miniature forks (often snail forks) or toothpicks at apéritif time. These are the best yet, as far as I am concerned, because the anchovies are fresher and not drowned in salt.
There are also various sorts of savoury pastes containing anchovies to be spread on little pieces of bread (also for apéritif) and naturally we cannot forget olives stuffed with anchovies.
So now I am wondering about anchovies in the rest of the world. Are they popular? Are they abhorred? Are there uses for anchovies of which I am not aware?
Tell me about your anchovies.
i prefer white anchovies (which is boquerones), and on dense bread with roasted capsicum/paprika.
The anchoiade I like is this one, from the Comte Austin de Croze via Elizabeth David: Prenez 12 anchois de Collioure à l'huile et 12 anchois de saumure, 12 belles amandes pelées ou 6 noix bien pelées, 3 belles figues sèches, 2 gousses d'ail, un petit oignon, 50 gr. De fines herbes, une branche de fenouil, un petit piment rouge, de l'huile très fruitée et une cuiller d'eau de fleur d'oranger,
With just a drop of orange flower water in my case.
And the thing that had slipped my mind was a bagna caoda.
There is pasta con le sarde ( actually made with anchovies) which is not one of my favourites,but there is also the very nice Sicilian dish 'pasta c'anciova e muddica' which I really like.
For this you need salted anchovies,chopped up,cooked in olive oil with onion,garlic and a little chili.
At the same time you toast breadcrumbs in a pan and cook the pasta (usually spaghetti).
Mix all 3 together,with a bit more olive oil and some parsley.
Fast,cheap and tasty...
At 20, just starting a Jr-year in college in Rome, a friend and I joined a bunch of ragazzi Romani who drove us up to the hills in Frascatti. We stopped at a tiny village ristorante for pasta and while waiting for it we had a white wine from the region, bread, (GOOD bread), a plate of anchovies and a bowl of little oil or salt-cured olives. By the time the pasta arrived my culinary life had changed. How could anything so bad-- the anchovies, the bitter little olives-- balanced with the wine and bread, be so damned GOOD!!??
All of the above suggestions; and add the cauliflower "sauce" for pasta: Steam cauliflower until very tender.
Crush
Heat olive oil -- lots.
Add dried hot pepper-- to taste, but don't wimp out, chopped garlic-- plenty, smashed anchovies and the crushed cauliflower; stir a bit and pour over pasta. Works especially well over chunky, curly pasta-- rotini, farfalle, etc.
Here for San Giuseppe we have a special dish ( Sfince di San Giuseppe)....a speciality of Palermo,and one of the heaviest things you are ever likely to encounter. Its basically a fried dough stuffed with ricotta cream (ricotta,sugar,chocolate,candied fruit and nuts).Sweet as hell....
Like a cannolo but 3 times bigger,soft and with 5 times more calories ;-)
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Anchovies
For most of my childhood, I knew nothing about anchovies other than they created debates in television series and movies about whether a pizza should have anchovies or not. "Not" seemed to be the majority opinion, but where I grew up, we had neither pizzas nor anchovies, so I had to wait to pursue the investigation.When I was finally exposed to anchovies on a pizza, I liked them, but I understood how anybody who hates fishy things would find them to be an abomination.
Settling in France as a young adult, I discovered anchovies on salade niçoise which seemed to be another good use for them, always with parsimony, of course. There is also pissaladière which is an anchovy tart along the Mediterranean coast -- it can be excellent if you have a sodium deficiency.
At the moment, the current fad is marinated anchovy fillets with herbs and olive oil, which you eat with miniature forks (often snail forks) or toothpicks at apéritif time. These are the best yet, as far as I am concerned, because the anchovies are fresher and not drowned in salt.
There are also various sorts of savoury pastes containing anchovies to be spread on little pieces of bread (also for apéritif) and naturally we cannot forget olives stuffed with anchovies.
So now I am wondering about anchovies in the rest of the world. Are they popular? Are they abhorred? Are there uses for anchovies of which I am not aware?
Tell me about your anchovies.
3
popular in med. countries. in Spain it's called boquerones. i see Turks buy lots of it at the market.i prefer white anchovies (which is boquerones), and on dense bread with roasted capsicum/paprika.
5
I lke them all but wouldn't go far out of my way for a Holsteiner schnitzel. I should mention that Janssons frestelse/Janson's temptation is made with the Swedish pickled ansjovis, which are sweet and quite unlike the fermented ones.The anchoiade I like is this one, from the Comte Austin de Croze via Elizabeth David: Prenez 12 anchois de Collioure à l'huile et 12 anchois de saumure, 12 belles amandes pelées ou 6 noix bien pelées, 3 belles figues sèches, 2 gousses d'ail, un petit oignon, 50 gr. De fines herbes, une branche de fenouil, un petit piment rouge, de l'huile très fruitée et une cuiller d'eau de fleur d'oranger,
With just a drop of orange flower water in my case.
And the thing that had slipped my mind was a bagna caoda.
9
We have an anchovy pasta occasionally.....as well as fresh grilled anchovies in season.There is pasta con le sarde ( actually made with anchovies) which is not one of my favourites,but there is also the very nice Sicilian dish 'pasta c'anciova e muddica' which I really like.
For this you need salted anchovies,chopped up,cooked in olive oil with onion,garlic and a little chili.
At the same time you toast breadcrumbs in a pan and cook the pasta (usually spaghetti).
Mix all 3 together,with a bit more olive oil and some parsley.
Fast,cheap and tasty...
10
In New Orleans they put mudicca on spaghetti con le sarde. It's traditional on San Giuseppe, March 19; the breadcrumbs are supposed to represent the sawdust in St Joseph's carperntry shop.11
Didn't like them as a kid, although my dad did. I remember pickled hot peppers with anchovy pieces in them. Dad loved them and I do, now.At 20, just starting a Jr-year in college in Rome, a friend and I joined a bunch of ragazzi Romani who drove us up to the hills in Frascatti. We stopped at a tiny village ristorante for pasta and while waiting for it we had a white wine from the region, bread, (GOOD bread), a plate of anchovies and a bowl of little oil or salt-cured olives. By the time the pasta arrived my culinary life had changed. How could anything so bad-- the anchovies, the bitter little olives-- balanced with the wine and bread, be so damned GOOD!!??
All of the above suggestions; and add the cauliflower "sauce" for pasta: Steam cauliflower until very tender.
Crush
Heat olive oil -- lots.
Add dried hot pepper-- to taste, but don't wimp out, chopped garlic-- plenty, smashed anchovies and the crushed cauliflower; stir a bit and pour over pasta. Works especially well over chunky, curly pasta-- rotini, farfalle, etc.
14
That's interesting about New Orleans and the breadcrumbs Vinny.Here for San Giuseppe we have a special dish ( Sfince di San Giuseppe)....a speciality of Palermo,and one of the heaviest things you are ever likely to encounter. Its basically a fried dough stuffed with ricotta cream (ricotta,sugar,chocolate,candied fruit and nuts).Sweet as hell....
Like a cannolo but 3 times bigger,soft and with 5 times more calories ;-)
