Jumping fish

Boquerones and tomato bread

Small in size, big in possibilities
  • 4 persons
  • cooking time: 20 min
  • difficulty

Ingredients

  • 180g fresh anchovy fillet
  • 150ml white wine vinegar
  • 50ml olive oil, extra virgin
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 2 sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • pepper
  • 1/2 white baguette
  • 2 large ripe tomatoes, halved
  • 2 x 50g cans of anchovy fillets in olive oil, drained
  • extra virgin olive oil

How to prepare

The anchovy is a small but incredibly versatile fish. It is salted and/or laid in acid, marinated and fermented. Originally, these methods of preparation originated to preserve the fish. This is less important now, but the different ways of preparation still give us all different tastes. The sour anchovies are mainly known as the Spanish boquerones and vinagre. The fillets are lightly salted and then marinated in vinegar, or in a combination of vinegar and oil, for a few hours. The fish meat is, as it were, ‘cooked’ by the acid. This makes the fish meat soft, white and tasty. Something completely different: dishes with a high degree of acidity (in the marinade or in the poaching liquid) also help against the spread of fish smells through the kitchen and the rest of the house.

 

Preparation

  • 1 To prepare the boquerones, lay the anchovy fillets on a plate, skin-side up, and grind over a little pepper. Pour the vinegar over the fillets until they are just covered and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 4 hours.
  • 2 Lift the fillets from the marinade, rinse them lightly under cold running water and pat dry with kitchen paper. Mix the olive oil with garlic and parsley in a bowl. Arrange the fillets on a plate and pour over the garlic oil. Cover tightly with cling film and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
  • 3 Take the anchovy fillets out of the refrigerator 15 min before you are ready to serve them, so they have time to come to room temperature and any oil that has solidified can dissolve again.
  • 4 To make the bread, preheat the oven to 200 C .
  • 5 Halve the baguette lenghtwise and cut each half into 5-8cm slices. Toast the bread on a rack in the oven, cut-sides up, for 3-5min until the slices are golden brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
  • 6 Rub the cut sides of the tomatoes over the bread as though you were grating the tomato onto it. Divide the canned anchovy fillets between the bread slices and drizzle with olive oil.