About
Ground anchovy in a metal tube, mostly fish, with only salt and a little sunflower oil beside it. Scalia makes it at Sciacca in Sicily from Mediterranean anchovy, the same fish that fills its jars. A squeeze does the work of two fillets without opening a jar you then have to finish.
The fish is Mediterranean anchovy landed on the Sicilian coast. The paste is made at the same Sciacca plant that handles the whole fillets. Anchovy accounts for seventy seven per cent of the tube, with salt and a little sunflower oil making up the rest.
Salt is the only other thing in there and there is a lot of it, which is the point. Season a dish after the paste has gone in and not before. A tube keeps for months in a cool cupboard, and once it is open it lives in the fridge.
Scalia has worked at Sciacca since 1973, a town whose fleet chases anchovy above anything else. Squeeze a centimetre into a tomato sauce, a salsa verde or a Caesar dressing. Nobody will be able to name what they are tasting.
Producer note
The paste comes out of the same Sicilian plant as Scalia's whole fillets. The fish behind it is Mediterranean anchovy landed on the coast at Sciacca.