This stuffed anchovy and piquillo recipe is a classic Basque pintxo found in bars throughout San Sebastian.
To make stuff fresh anchovies with sweet piquillo peppers and garlic, shallow-fry until golden and serve on top of a slice of bread.
Anchovy Nutrition: High in protein
This anchovy pintxo is high in protein and contains heaps of healthy Omega 3 fats. While the peppers are an excellent source of vitamin C, fiber, potassium, and calcium.
How to make it
The full recipe instructions and ingredients for this stuffed anchovy and piquillo pepper recipe can be found at the end of this post.
Cantabrian Anchovies
Anchovies have long formed a staple in the Basque diet. Nothing like the brown smudgy thing you get on a cheap pizza, the Cantabrian anchovy is large and succulent. Basque fishermen catch the anchovies at night, using a traditional landing net.
Anchovy Pintxos in San Sebastian
Walk through San Sebastian’s Old Town, and it won’t be long before you bump into an anchovy on a pintxo.
Cured, marinated or stuffed and fried this small, silver fish makes its appearance in many guises.
The best place to eat white anchovies in San Sebastian is Txpetxa, a pintxo bar where they only serve marinated anchovies, with a multitude of toppings like sea urchin roe or salmon mousse.
But if it’s the unforgettable saltiness of the brown anchovy you are after try a Gilda. Inspired by Rita Hayworth, the anchovy (rather like Rita herself) plays a leading role in this famous pintxo that you’ll find in practically every bar in town.
Bar Martinez, on Calle 31 de Agosto, is where to head if you are after your anchovy stuffed and fried. Ask for the “anchoa rellena de piquillo,” a hot pintxo made to order.
Where to buy fresh anchovy?
For this recipe, you need fresh anchovies (not the pickled white ones or the salty brown ones) but fresh anchovies, bought from your local fishmonger.
How to clean fresh anchovy?
If you want to do it yourself here is how to clean an anchovy. It’s fiddly work, and you’ll save yourself time if you ask your fishmonger to gut and butterfly the anchovy for you.
What’s the difference between brown, white and fresh anchovies?
White Anchovies
Pickled white anchovies, also called boquerones, taste tart and fresh. They have been lightly salted, before being marinated in vinegar and deboned.
Brown Anchovies
Salt-cured brown anchovies are a Cantabrian delicacy, the process to make them is long and laborious. Each sardine is hand filleted, before being cured in salt for up to ten months, and then preserved in olive oil. The very best anchovies come from Santoña.
Anchovy and Piquillo Pepper – the perfect combination
In this recipe, the anchovy is stuffed with the small red Spanish piquillo pepper. It’s a tried and tested combination. The intense hit of charred, smokey, sweetness of the pepper pairs superbly well with oily fish.
How can you recreate the authentic Basque taste at home?
To make this anchovy and piquillo Pepper recipe taste like an authentic Basque pintxo you need to source canned Spanish piquillo peppers. Look for the ones with the DO Lodosa designation of origin.
Smokey, sweet, small red piquillo peppers
In Navarra, piquillos are called ‘red gold.’ Harvested by hand, each autumn, the peppers are wood-fire roasted, then carefully skinned and deseeded.
You can buy piquillo pepper online.
Steps to make the pintxo
A quick visual guide to how to layer up this pintxo:
Confit the Spanish piquillo peppers and garlic
Cook the garlic and piquillo pepper in oil, over a low heat.
Stuff the anchovy with the piquillo pepper mix
Lay the anchovy down and add the piquillo mix on top – a thin layer will do.
A second anchovy fillet on top
Layer a second anchovy on top, to close the “anchovy sandwich.”
Coat in flour and egg
Dust in flour and then in whisked egg mix.
Fry the anchovy pintxo
Fry in oil (not too hot) for a couple of minutes until golden on the outside, but still juicy inside.
