A crispy crust and tender, delicious anchovies inside!
One of the simplest and most beloved recipes of Liguria:
Anchovies in Breadcrumbs
To make the fish even tastier, you can add grated Parmesan to the breadcrumbs! This breading recipe, which creates a wonderfully crispy crust, can be used not only for anchovies but also for breaded squid, breaded sardines, and in general for fillets of any white sea fish cut into pieces.
Anchovies can also be prepared in a lighter version: simply clean them, rinse them, and coat them in rice flour. Then fry them! Once cooked, season with salt and/or drizzle with lemon juice.
In Liguria, we cook anchovies very often, especially during the summer.
But back to the anchovies:
The most time-consuming part of this recipe is cleaning the fresh anchovies. But once you get the hang of removing the head, the insides come out easily. After that, rinse the anchovies and fillet them. You can see in my video recipe how to clean anchovies.
Anchovies can also be cooked whole. However, the insides must, of course, be removed. Whether to leave the head on or remove it is up to you and depends on the size of the fish.
For me, it’s easier to prepare the anchovies as fillets so my son can eat them quickly without wasting time cleaning them while they’re still hot.
In Savona, I buy freshly caught fish at several shops, and of course at my favorite, Linea Azzurra.
I use either our small, more expensive Ligurian anchovies or ones from the Spanish coast.
Crispy Fried Fresh Anchovies
Equipment
- frypan
Ingredients
- 500 gr fresh anchovies
- 3 tbsp flour or rise flour
- sunflower oil
- 2 eggs row
- 5 tbsp breadcrumbs
- salt
- 1 limon for juce
Instructions
- Clean the anchovies by removing the insides, rinse them, and fillet them, carefully taking out the bones. Rinse the fillets lightly again and pat them dry with paper towels to remove excess moisture (photo 1).Prepare three plates: one with flour, one with beaten raw egg, and one with breadcrumbs (grated dry bread) – photo 2.
- Coat each anchovy first in flour (photo 3), shaking off the excess. Then transfer it to the plate with egg (photo 4), dip it on both sides, and immediately move it to the third plate with breadcrumbs (photo 5).
- Place the breaded anchovies into very hot oil. I prefer to use refined sunflower oil for frying.Fry the anchovies very quickly on both sides (photo 6). Remove them and place on paper towels to absorb as much oil as possible (photo 7). Once all the anchovies are fried, drizzle them with lemon juice and sprinkle with salt (photo 8).
