Epic anchovy & caper breadcrumbs
to top ANY pasta dish.
No seriously though, these breadcrumbs are perhaps the most powerful flavour bomb we know. You could sprinkle them on spaghetti and butter and sit down to an utterly delicious meal. They are crispy, salty, lightly fatty, nutty, pungent, and rich in umami complexity from the anchovies.
Zero waste.
Our top tip for future flavour hacking and minimising food waste? NEVER through away any old sourdough, no matter how stale! Simply whizz it up in a blender or nutribullet, store it in a tupperware, and pop it in the freezer. We’re constantly topping up our ‘breadcrumb tupperware’ whenever we have stale bread around, and we take from it at least a twice a week for all sorts of tasty recipes… we rely on a constant stash of sourdough breadcrumbs for coating treats for the deep fryer such as these Cheese & Pineapple croquettes…. making these unreal anchovy & caper bread crumbs, or scattering on top of tasty ‘bakes’ such as our Chickpea Rockefeller or our Smoked haddock & sweetcorn bake to add a wonderful golden crunch.
Flavour hacks.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
This recipe makes 4 servings.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
4-6 anchovies
4 heaped tsp baby capers, drained
2 clove garlic, finely minced
8 tbsp sourdough breadcrumbs
Method:
If you are cooking these breadcrumbs to top a delicious pasta dish make them during the final 5 minutes of cooking so that they are hot and crispy when you are ready to eat.
Heat the olive oil and anchovies in a small saucepan over a very gentle heat. The anchovies should ‘melt’ in the heat and start to break down, rather than ‘fry’.
After 2 minutes add the drained capers and minced, or finely grated, garlic, and fry these with the anchovies for 2 minutes; keep the heat low and stir constantly to encourage the anchovies to break down.
After 2 minutes, add the breadcrumbs and stir; these will absorb any excess moisture or oil and your pan will look dry almost immediately. Continue stirring and frying the breadcrumbs for 2 minutes until they’ve ‘crisped up’ and look shiny and golden.
Turn off the heat and keep your crispy breadcrumbs in the warm saucepan until you are ready to scatter them very liberally on top of your piping hot bowl of pasta.
We firmly believe that they work brilliantly with any pasta dish, yet have a very soft spot for pairing these with our favourite ‘fridge-raid pasta’ which you can find here.
