Anchoíta — Engraulis anchoita — is the small anchovy of the cold South Atlantic, and the reason Mar del Plata still has a curing trade at all. Each spring the zafra brings the schools inshore, and the city’s saladeros pack the catch into salt, where it cures for months until the flesh turns deep rose and the flavour concentrates into something closer to cured ham than to fish. Then it is filleted by hand and covered in oil. We are sourcing it the way we source salt: from an established producer, under our label, with nothing invented about where it comes from.
Melt a fillet into warm oil at the start of a tomato sauce, lay two over butter on good bread, or chop one into a dressing that needs depth. One fillet seasons a whole pan.
Anchovy fillets (Engraulis anchoita), oil, salt. Final panel follows the producer’s recipe.
