The Best Seasonings To Elevate Your Tin Of Anchovies

Sometime in early 2022, the tinned fish that had taken up modest real estate on grocery shelves for decades suddenly started to look like something shiny and new. Dominated by a millennial-heavy market, peeled-back tins started showing up on cocktail bar menus, picnic spreads, and dinner-party boards strewn with crusty bread and pickled vegetables. 

The demand for luxury catches packed into humble containers is hotter than ever. In the summer of 2022, TikTok creator and chef Ali Hooke racked up millions of views for her "tinned fish date night" videos, which turned an otherwise common pantry item into a special treat.

Of all the salty swimmers that comprise the tinned fish craze, anchovies are a star. Many people use them to add umami richness to spaghetti sauce and other dishes in which they dissolve in simmering pots, while others prefer to eat them straight out of the tin. Whichever way you swing, here are a few ways to level up your next Italian-inspired snack the next time a craving strikes.

In a roundup of pantry staples for Food & Wine, Chef Daniel Levine of Miami craft ice cream shop Dasher & Crank sings the praises of anchovies for the their high dose of flavor. 

"Nicknamed 'Italian MSG,' they are loaded with glutamates, the chemical compound that we perceive as umami," Levine said to the outlet. The chef likes to sauté a few of them in olive oil with garlic for a quick pasta dish, to which he adds red pepper flakes, parsley, white wine, and lemon juice. Levine admits to being averse to "fishiness" but swears that anchovies lose any sign of the sea once they hit the pan. 

If you like that subtle eau de mer, we suggest draping a few anchovies over a classic niçoise salad, a slice of pizza, or a piece of toast brushed with garlic and drizzled with your best olive oil. If you want to land somewhere in between sautéd and whole, work them into the dressing of your Caesar salad.

A tin of fish might not seem like it has a huge impact on the environment. But on the contrary, seafood purveyors who harvest their catches unsustainably can cause all sorts of destruction. 

For example, according to a a Greenpeace ranking, many producers of canned tuna practice overfishing, which can result in underpopulation of vital species. Enter: designer brands such as Fishwife Tinned Seafood Co., which peddles "responsibly sourced tinned fish." Its packaging projects the quality of the smoked Atlantic salmon and/or smoked rainbow trout inside.

Fortunately, anchovies are at a lower risk of getting overfished than other types of tinned fish. The Environmental Defense Fund says the forage fish breeds rapidly, making it "more resilient to intense fishing pressure than slower-maturing fish." Even so, it's a good idea to choose a vetted brand. The Environmental Working Group gives high sustainability scores to Season, Bellino, and Rizzoli.