Before we moved to New England, I had never seen such a wide selection of tinned fish options. Even the local grocery store in our small town carries a few items. Recently a much larger whole aisle caught my eye while shopping at Reny's in Dexter, Maine. The packaging is so beautiful and colorful that at first I thought I was looking at a shelf of fine imported candy or fancy candles, but I quickly realized, the shelves were full of every type of tinned fish you can imagine. I definitely impulse-bought a few items to take home and experiment with.
I’ve had anchovies in Caesar dressing at fancy restaurants and of course I’ve made tuna salad sandwiches, but this tinned fish abundance is a whole other level. I decided to start with the Sardines because they were the most familiar to me, and I found a few different recipes for olive tapenade that incorporates sardines to add the salty umami flavor. I made a blend of the ingredients based on what I had on hand. I had purchased a wedge of parmesan primarily so I could use the rind in soups after grating the cheese, so I tossed some of that in the mix.
I used a half jar of Mezzetta pitted olives, chopped up fine, a couple of cloves of minced garlic that we got from a neighbor, a teaspoon of capers, a pinch of parsley and 3 whole sardines; then just enough olive oil to make it "glossy" and pulsed it with an immersion blender until smooth. For serving I dusted the mixture with course ground pepper and some red pepper flakes, but NO SALT. I figured that between the fish, the cheese and capers, there would be no need to add extra salt and I was right.
So my little lunch consisted of toasted crackers to scoop up the deliciousness with a few whole sardines on the side with just a pinch of parmesan. I'm here to tell you they were delicious, but very salty so if you're not into all things salty umami, this might not be the thing for you. But I am here for it. And it's true what they say - you can't even tell there are very tiny bones in these sardines, they simply melt in your mouth.
I'm looking forward to my next experiment and learning more about this world of tinned fish. I'm truly blown away by the burst of flavor these ingredients create.
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