Anchovy
Acciugata
Tasty Piedmontese sauce made with anchovies, capers, aglio e olio, ideal with pasta or grilled meats.
Anchovy sauce is a flavorful and fragrant sauce, designed to add character to simple dishes without weighing them down. The extra virgin olive oil base embraces the aroma of garlic and the marine flavor of anchovies, which dissolve during cooking to create a smooth, glossy sauce. Capers add an intense, slightly pungent note, completing the balance with their savory flavor. The technique requires gentle cooking: the heat must help melt the fillets without burning the garlic or overpowering the flavors. Adding the capers after cooking off the heat maintains their distinctive flavor. In Piedmont, this sauce is used to flavor pasta dishes or as an accompaniment to grilled or fried meats, including breaded and fried braciole.
Instructions
ShareVoice reading
7 steps · natural Italian voice
Desalt the anchovies
Thoroughly rinse the salted anchovies to remove the surface salt. Open them, remove the central bone, and cut them into fillets. Proceed gently to keep them intact, then keep them ready for cooking. Rinse thoroughly, as the final flavor also depends on the amount of residual salt.
Prepare the capers
Rinse the capers in salt and chop them finely. Blend them into a fine, even mass so they can be distributed throughout the sauce without leaving any large pieces. Set them aside until the end of cooking: they'll be added off the heat to better preserve their aroma.
Heat oil and water
Pour the extra virgin olive oil into a saucepan and add a tablespoon of water. Heat the bottom of the pan to a moderate temperature, without bringing it to a lively boil. The mixture It must be hot and fluid, ready to receive the garlic without burning it.
Gently brown the garlic
Join it clove of garlic crush it and brown it over low heatLet it flavor the oil without darkening it: when it releases its characteristic aroma and maintains a light color, the bottom is ready to receive the anchovies.
Dissolve the anchovies
Add the fillets to the hot oil and work them with a ladle, pressing them against the bottom of the pan. saucepanKeep the heat low and continue cooking until the anchovies have completely broken down, forming a smooth and tasty sauce, with no visible pieces of fillet.
Remove the garlic
Take it off clove of garlic from the saucepan Add the anchovies when they're dissolved. Remove the oil before finishing the sauce, so the dressing retains the flavor already released into the oil without becoming overpowering or stringy.
Complete with capers
Turn off the heat Add the finely chopped capers. Stir carefully to distribute them throughout the oil and anchovy emulsion. The sauce is ready when it appears smooth, glossy, and densely aromatic, with the capers well-dispersed without further boiling.
Chef's Tips
Dissolve the anchovies over low heat and add the capers only off the heat, so the sauce maintains a balanced flavor profile and a clear aroma.
Ingredients
- Ingredients for 4 people
- 5 salted anchovies
- (1.41 oz) 40 g salted capers
- 1 clove of garlic
- (5 tbsp) 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Can't find it in the US?
- salt-packed anchoviesItalian delis or online
Oil-packed anchovy fillets: 2 fillets for each whole salted anchovy
No need to rinse or bone them.
- salt-packed capersItalian delis or online
Capers in brine, rinsed
â ïž Automatic ingredient-based detection. Always check product labels.
Translate