Why anchovies make any dish better

Contents

1. Why anchovies improve any dish
2. Anchovy toasts: 4 winning combinations
3. Pasta with anchovies: 3 quick recipes
4. Salads with anchovies: 2 reinvented classics
5. Pizza and coca with anchovies
6. Sauces and butters with anchovies
7. Stuffed anchovies and other formats
8. Storage and usage tips
9. Summary table: 15 recipes at a glance
10. Frequently asked questions
11. Conclusions

Why anchovies improve any dish

Updated March 2026. Every day at Mercat del Ninot we see what works and what doesn't. This is our real-world experience.

Salt-cured or oil-packed anchovies provide concentrated umami. It's the fifth taste — that depth that turns a good dish into a memorable one. Italians know it (colatura di alici), Japanese know it (dashi), and in Cantabria, we've known it for centuries.

A good Cantabrian anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) cured for 12 or more months has the ability to enhance flavors without the dish "tasting like anchovy." It's an amplifier, not a mandatory protagonist. That makes it the secret ingredient of professional and amateur cooks alike.

The following 15 recipes are organized by dish type. All work with quality Cantabrian anchovies — supermarket canned anchovies will yield inferior results, but acceptable for most cooked preparations.

Anchovy toasts: 4 winning combinations

1. Classic anchovy and tomato toast

Toasted crystal bread, grated tomato, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and two Cantabrian anchovy fillets on top. The simplest honesty. The bread should be crispy, the tomato ripe (seasonal, not hothouse in January), and the anchovy at room temperature.

Time: 3 minutes. Difficulty: none. Result: extraordinary if the product is good.

2. Anchovy and butter toast

The quintessential French combination. Lightly toasted country bread, a generous layer of unsalted butter (the anchovy already provides salt), and crisscrossed fillets on top. The fatty-salty contrast is addictive. If you want to elevate it, add a few flakes of freshly ground black pepper.

3. Anchovy and piquillo pepper toast

Piquillo peppers (from Lodosa, if you can get them) roasted, cut into strips, arranged on bread with a drizzle of oil and anchovies on top. It's basically a deconstructed gilda without the chili pepper. If you like spicy, add a thin slice of Basque chili.

4. Anchovy with avocado and lemon toast

The contemporary version. Ripe avocado mashed with a fork, a few drops of lemon, salt (little, the anchovy provides it) and the fillets on top. It's rich in healthy fats and combines creamy textures with the firmness of the anchovy. For more ideas, check out our guide to 10 anchovy toast combinations.

Pasta with anchovies: 3 quick recipes

5. Spaghetti with anchovies, garlic, and chili

Cook the spaghetti al dente. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, brown 2 sliced garlic cloves in plenty of olive oil, add half a chopped dried chili, and 6 anchovy fillets. Stir over low heat — the anchovies will dissolve, forming the sauce. Drain the pasta, reserving a glass of water, sauté it in the skillet, adding the necessary cooking water. Fresh parsley and serve.

Time: 15 minutes. Cost: minimal. For more detail, we have a detailed recipe for pasta with anchovies.

6. Penne with anchovies and cherry tomatoes

Sauté halved cherry tomatoes in olive oil until soft. Add 4-5 chopped anchovy fillets, let them integrate. Mix with the cooked pasta, a handful of capers, and fresh basil. It's fresh, balanced, and perfect for summer.

7. Pasta with broccoli and anchovies

Cook broccoli florets along with the pasta. In parallel, prepare the garlic, chili, and anchovy base as in recipe 5. Mix everything in the skillet. The broccoli partially breaks down and creates a rustic sauce. Grated Parmesan on top. Southern Italians have been doing this with orecchiette for centuries.

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Salads with anchovies: 2 reinvented classics

8. Caesar salad with real anchovies

The original Caesar salad of 1924 did not contain anchovies, but the best current versions do. The key is in the dressing: mash 3-4 anchovy fillets in a mortar with a garlic clove, add egg yolk, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and emulsify with olive oil. Romaine lettuce, stale bread croutons, and Parmesan shavings.

Cantabrian anchovies in the dressing provide a depth that industrial canned anchovies cannot achieve. It's the difference between a restaurant Caesar and a fast-food one.

9. Tomato salad with anchovies and onion

Ripe tomatoes in thick slices, sweet onion in thin rings (from Figueres or Fuentes de Ebro), anchovies arranged on top, black Aragon olives, and an olive oil dressing with Sherry vinegar. It is the quintessential summer salad on the Cantabrian coast. No lettuce, no complications.

Pizza and coca with anchovies

10. Anchovy, caper, and olive pizza (Neapolitan)

Pizza dough (whatever you usually use), natural tomato sauce, mozzarella, anchovy fillets, capers, and black olives. The anchovies go AFTER the oven, never before — excessive heat dries them out and makes them bitter. Put the pizza in the oven with only tomato and mozzarella, and place the anchovies when you take the pizza out.

11. Catalan coca with anchovies and pepper

The Catalan coca de recapte is a natural territory for anchovies. Coca dough (without tomato, without cheese), escalivada (roasted pepper and eggplant), and anchovies on top. It's the Catalan equivalent of pizza, but with centuries more history and without the marketing.

Sauces and butters with anchovies

12. Anchovy butter

200g unsalted butter at room temperature, 8 mashed anchovy fillets, juice of half a lemon, black pepper. Mix everything, form a cylinder with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 2 hours. Cut slices to put on grilled meats, baked fish, or roasted vegetables. It keeps for 2 weeks in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer.

13. Anchovy vinaigrette

3 very finely chopped anchovy fillets, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons Sherry vinegar, 6 tablespoons olive oil, 1 chopped shallot. Emulsify with a fork. Works on any salad, roasted vegetables, or boiled potatoes. It's the vinaigrette many restaurants use as a base — now you know why their salads taste better.

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Stuffed anchovies and other formats

14. Anchovies stuffed with piquillo pepper

Unroll an anchovy fillet, place a strip of roasted piquillo pepper on top, and roll it up. Secure with a toothpick. It's a classic bar pintxo in the Basque Country and Cantabria. If you want to sophisticate it, fill it with goat cheese cream before rolling.

15. Baked anchovies with anchovies

Butterfly fresh boquerones (fresh anchovies), place an anchovy fillet between two boquerones (like a sandwich), coat in flour and egg, and bake at 200°C for 8-10 minutes. It's the oven version of fried stuffed boquerones, lighter and with a double flavor of Engraulis encrasicolus.

Storage and usage tips

These are the most common mistakes when using anchovies in cooking:

• Not bringing them to room temperature: take anchovies out of the fridge 10 minutes before using them cold (toasts, salads). Cold dulls the flavor.
• Overcooking them: oil-packed anchovies dissolve over low heat in 1-2 minutes. Do not fry them over high heat — they will become bitter.
• Throwing away the oil: anchovy oil is liquid gold. Use it in dressings, for sautéing vegetables, or for dipping bread.
• Not draining salt-cured ones: if using salt-ccured anchovies, rinse them under the tap, remove the backbone, and pat them dry with paper before using. Then, cover them with olive oil.
• Storage: once opened, transfer the anchovies to an airtight container covered with olive oil. In the fridge, they will last 2-3 weeks without a problem.