Anchovy Paste from IASA

Italian Anchovy Paste made with 85% Anchovies, Olive Oil & Salt

There are a few secret ingredients we always have on hand for boosting the flavor of our favorite dishes—a jar of concentrated tomato paste, fragrant fennel pollen, Cambodian lemongrass paste—but there is one briny ingredient that we can't cook without: anchovies. IASA's anchovy paste is made with just three ingredients: anchovies that have been salt-cured for 12 months, olive oil and salt. It adds instant depth and big, bold umami flavor with just a squeeze.

Ingredients: Anchovies (85%), olive oil, salt.

How to use

Anchovy paste is very popular in Italy, where it is commonly used as a spread for panini or as a topping for buttered toast. Keep a tube on hand for spur-of-the-moment Caesar salad dressing, pasta puttanesca or any sauce that could use a briny, savory kick. Skip the ranch and dip your vegetables in bagna cauda, a warm mix (bagna cauda meaning "hot bath") of extra virgin olive oil, butter, garlic and anchovies. 

About the producer

Retired naval captain Francesco di Mauro founded Ittica Alimentare Salerno (IASA) as one of the first companies to preserve the bounty of tuna and anchovies brought in by the local fishermen of Cetara, a village tucked away in a small cove of the Amalfi Coast. There are only a handful of companies left in Italy that package freshly caught fish according to high quality standards. And IASA is the only one that continues to do most of the work by hand: gutting and cleaning the fish, placing layers of anchovies in drums with sea salt and hand packing the anchovies in jars.