Olasagasti Anchovy Fillets in Olive Oil
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Cantabrian anchovy fillets in olive oil from Olasagasti — the Basque cannery on the northern coast of Spain, working with fresh fish from the Bay of Biscay since 1929. These are the classic salt-cured anchovy fillets that the Cantabrian coast is famous for: caught during the spring anchovy season, salted, matured for several months until the flesh becomes deep red-brown and soft enough to flake under a fork, then hand-filleted, hand-trimmed and packed in good olive oil. The work behind a single tin is significant — each fillet is cleaned and skinned by hand — and the eating quality is correspondingly different from mass-market anchovy fillets cured to a faster timetable.
The flavour is deep, savoury and clean, with the long umami finish that defines a properly matured Cantabrian anchovy. The texture is soft enough to melt into a warm dressing or a pasta sauce, but firm enough to hold its shape on a piece of bread. The oil itself becomes part of the product as the fillets sit in the tin, and should never be drained away — it carries the flavour of the fish and is a finished dressing in its own right.
These are anchovies for the kitchen and for the plate. As an ingredient they are the foundation of Caesar dressing, bagna càuda, puttanesca, vitello tonnato and a hundred other classic preparations where anchovy provides the savoury depth that nothing else replicates. As a dish in their own right, they are the centre of a tapas board, on warm toast with butter, or piled onto a slice of grilled bread with chopped tomato.
Producer: Olasagasti, Basque Country, Spain
Species: Cantabrian anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus)
Cure: Salt-cured and matured, hand-filleted, packed in olive oil
Ingredients: Anchovy fillets, olive oil, salt
Net: 48g
Allergens: Fish
Storage: Store in a cool, dry place. Once opened, refrigerate, keep submerged in oil and consume within 3 days.
