Making Your Own Anchovy Fillets

There is no region in Italy that does not use anchovy fillets in some of its dishes. Used wisely, anchovies provide an unseen but firm foundation on which other ingredients can build up flavor. Unfortunately most prepared and tinned anchovy fillets are of the crumbly excessively salty kind that have given this precious ingredient a bad name. When you find a brand, either in cans or in jars, whose fillets are well fleshed and whose flavor enriches a dish without masking the other flavors, stick with it.