The Delicious Secret Lurking in Every Can of Anchovies—and How to Use It

Canned anchovies being lifted with a utensil — Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

I've written about my love for anchovies before: I use the satisfyingly salty tinned fish to make salad dressings, dips, and pastas, and will happily eat them on their own as a snack. While many people discard the can and the remaining oil once they're done with the fish, I like to save all the oil for another use: It's wonderfully briny, and great for flavoring breadcrumbs, croutons, salad dressings, and more.

Below, you'll find recipes for using up all that delicious anchovy oil—simply replace all or a portion of oil called for in the recipe with the same amount of anchovy oil to give your food a pleasant savory kick. While anchovy oil itself isn't salty, it has a briny quality, so you may want to reduce the amount of salt called for in the recipes slightly or simply season your food to taste.

Croutons

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

One of my favorite ways to flavor croutons is by tossing crusty bread, such as ciabatta, baguette, or sourdough, with anchovy oil. You can replace all of the olive oil here with anchovy oil, or use a 50/50 blend of olive oil and leftover anchovy oil. Coat the bread in the oil, then bake, stirring every five minutes, until the croutons are golden brown and nicely crisp.

Extra-Crispy Croutons
Caesar Breadcrumbs

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

The easiest way to make these breadcrumbs even more Caesar-y is to replace the two tablespoons of salted butter with anchovy oil. You'll cook the anchovy paste and grated garlic in the oil until fragrant, then toss the breadcrumbs to coat them in the aromatic mixture.

Caesar Breadcrumbs
Crispy Roast Potatoes

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

In his recipe for extra-crispy roast potatoes, former Serious Eats editor Kenji recommends coating the potatoes in a few tablespoons of olive oil, duck fat, goose fat, or beef fat, but anchovy oil is also wonderful. Use it to cook your rosemary and garlic, strain it into a bowl, then pour the infused oil over your spuds before roasting.

The Best Crispy Roast Potatoes Ever
Zesty Lemon Vinaigrette

Serious Eats / Jen Causey

This creamy, invigorating vinaigrette gets its bright flavor from lemon juice and zest, with a kick from Dijon mustard. For a more umami-forward salad dressing, I like to use equal parts anchovy oil and olive oil and skip the honey. The tangy citrus pairs wonderfully with savory anchovy oil.

Zesty Lemon Vinaigrette

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Easy Roasted Broccoli

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

There are many ways to zhuzh up roasted vegetables: You can top them with cheese and breadcrumbs, serve them with a punchy dressing, or glaze them. You can also change up the oil you roast them in, whether it's shallot oil, garlic oil, or leftover oil from your tinned fish.

Easy Roasted Broccoli
Bagna Càuda (Anchovy-Garlic) Popcorn

Serious Eats / Daniel Gritzer

This delightfully funky popcorn is inspired by bagna càuda, the Northern Italian anchovy and garlic dip. While I think using anchovy oil in the dip itself would be a bit overpowering, it's a great addition to this popcorn topper. Melt butter in a saucepan, cook the garlic and anchovies until they're fragrant and the fish have melted into the sauce, then stir in a few tablespoons of anchovy oil. Your popcorn (and movie-night guests) will thank you.

Bagna Càuda (Anchovy-Garlic) Popcorn
Puntarelle Alla Romana (Puntarelle Salad With Garlic and Anchovy Dressing)

Serious Eats / Andrew Janjigian

In this classic Roman dish, shreds of puntarella—a crisp, bitter green—are tossed with a potent anchovy- and garlic-heavy dressing. Make it even more flavorful by using a few tablespoons of anchovy oil in place of olive oil.

Puntarelle Alla Romana (Puntarelle Salad With Garlic and Anchovy Dressing)
Pasta Burro e Alici (Pasta With Creamy Anchovy-Butter Sauce)

Serious Eats / Sasha Marx

This is a super-savory, creamy pasta that requires butter for its luscious sauce—but you can give the crisp breadcrumb topping a kick of umami by swapping the olive oil with anchovy oil.

Pasta Burro e Alici (Pasta With Creamy Anchovy-Butter Sauce)

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The Delicious Secret Lurking in Every Can of Anchovies—and How to Use It

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