The market · Fish and seafood · Southern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia

Anchovies

Small oily fish, most often salt-cured — they melt into a sauce and bring deep savouriness without tasting fishy.

salty · savoury · briny

What to do with it

Kenji Hara's Sourdough, 100% ryeAnchovy would give it depthIbu Sari's Beef rendangAnchovy would give it depthAna Etxarri's ChawanmushiAnchovy would season itRosa Ibarra's Clarified milk punch, mezcal and pineappleAnchovy would soften its edge
Classics built on it
ProvençalPissaladièreA thick bread dough spread with onions cooked slowly to a sweet mass, criss-crossed with anchovies and dotted with black olives.No one here has made it yet

Kinds

Salted / in oil
Filleted and cured; the ones that melt into sauces.
Boquerones
Fresh fillets marinated in vinegar; white and mild.
Dried (myeolchi / ikan bilis)
Whole; for Korean stock and banchan, or fried crisp in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Goes with

garlicolive oillemonkombu

Knowing it

Where to buy
Delis. Cantabrian anchovies in oil are worth the price; whole salt-packed ones need rinsing and filleting.
Worth knowing
Melt them in warm oil with garlic at the start of a sauce — they vanish, and nobody guesses.

Kitchens that keep it in

Provence — south-eastern France, from the Rhône to NiceProvençalOlive oil, garlic and the herbs of the dry hills, with tomatoes, fish from the Mediterranean and sauces pounded in a mortar.10 classicsItalyItalianNot one cuisine but twenty regional ones, united by a respect for a few very good ingredients and the argument about how each dish is 'really' made.11 classics

More fish and seafood

Fish and seafoodBottargabriny, waxy, rich, ambersavouryrichsaltyNot cooked here yetFish and seafoodCrabssweet, briny, delicate3 classicsFish and seafoodCuttlefishsweet, dense, brinyNot cooked here yetFish and seafoodDried anchoviessalty, savoury, crispsavouryrichsalty2 classics