Whenever Emily sees anchovy toast on a menu, she orders it – it’s one of her favourite ways to start a meal. But it’s super simple to make at home – you just need the right ingredients. In this case, the anchovies that are preserved in tins (i.e. not pickled or fresh ones) – Cantabrian ones are nicest and still fairly inexpensive. And good, ideally French or French-style butter, but any high quality butter will do.
Traditionally you’d make toast to serve with the anchovies, but we love them on these Swedish crispbreads. The combination of the sweet crunch of the crispbread with the cold creamy butter and salty anchovies is a total winner! Today we served them with a tomato, stilton & chive salad, a nice pairing, but any salad you fancy will work. You just want something that adds a little freshness to turn what is really a starter dish into a light meal.
Emily & Estella both really love blue cheese, and our salad today is a nice balance of fresh, tart, salty and herbal. But if you don’t like blue cheeses, a more commonplace tomato-cheese salad would use mozzarella instead, and replace the chives with basil. Alternatively, shaved parmesan would work well to replace the stilton in today’s salad, or even a grating of cheddar.
The anchovies don’t really need any prepping. Just drain them and arrange on a plate, then serve with the crispbreads and butter. Unsalted or semi-salted butter would be traditional, as the anchovies are salty. Our French butter today had a few salt crystals, but it still worked well as the butter quality itself was so good.
One can of anchovies usually has 10 to 12 fillets in it – a good portion shared between two people (much more and we get ‘anchovied out’!). 3 to 4 crispbreads each is enough to carry these, and makes a light but still satisfying meal with the salad.
Jake sticks his nose in
These crispbreads are great, and inexpensive, but crostini or other crunchy crackers would work too. Or make some toast, but toast it quite firm. Sourdough works well for this, but any bread will do, just make sure it is really crispy!
For the salad, slice the tomatoes from the top down, removing a little of the white core where the stem was. Arrange on a plate, and snip over some of the chives, retaining a few for garnishing.
You can then either dress with a simple vinaigrette – see our recipe in our Tip, or do as we did today and just splash over some oil, vinegar and seasoning.
To do this, first season the tomatoes with salt and black pepper. Then sprinkle over about a capful / tablespoon of red or white wine vinegar, and follow with a good glug of olive oil.
Top with some crumbled stilton and finish with a few more chives, and perhaps another grind of black pepper.
The salad is now ready. Store, covered, in the fridge until needed, remembering to get it out about 20 to 30 minutes before you want to serve. Drizzle with a little more oil if needed before serving.
To eat the anchovies, spread a crispbread thickly with cold butter (you want the butter to be fairly cold and hard for the best texture match), then top with one or two anchovies.
Serve the salad on the side. These anchovy toasts are very yummy and VERY moreish!
Bon appétit!
