Colatura di Alici substitute

Substitutes for Colatura di Alici with ratios

1. 2Oil-Packed Anchovy Fillets, Melted

   Different texture

   Use 1 anchovy fillet for every 1 tsp colatura

   Warm the fillets in olive oil over low heat with a smashed garlic clove until they dissolve completely, about two minutes.

   What changes

   This is the most likely thing to already be in your kitchen.

   Best for

   pasta sauces, puttanesca, braised greens, roast lamb, dressings

   Rounder, oilier and less salty per spoonful, and it gives the sauce body and faint flecks rather than colatura's clear, sharp savoury wash. The flavour arrives as a background richness instead of a clean hit, so a dish made this way tastes fuller but less bright. Skip any salt in the recipe until you taste.

2. 3Anchovy Paste

   Different texture

   Use ¾ tsp paste for every 1 tsp colatura

   The convenient version of melted anchovy, and it disperses into a warm sauce without the dissolving step.

   What changes

   Best for

   quick pasta sauces, dressings, Caesar-style dressing, pan sauces

   Usually a little saltier and more one-dimensional than whole fillets, with a faint tinny or vinegary edge from the tube, and it thickens the sauce very slightly. Works well where the sauce has fat and garlic to hide behind, less well in a bare dish like spaghetti alla colatura where the liquid is the whole point.

3. 4Salt-Packed Anchovies Plus Their Brine

   Close match

   Use 1 rinsed fillet plus ½ tsp brine for every 1 tsp colatura

   The closest thing in kind, because colatura is literally the liquid that drains out of salt-packed anchovies.

   What changes

   If you have a tin or jar of salt-packed anchovies, the liquid at the bottom is a rough homemade colatura.

   Best for

   spaghetti alla colatura, dressings, finishing braised vegetables

   Rinse and bone the fillets before using them, or they are punishingly salty. The brine is cruder and cloudier than real colatura and can taste harshly saline rather than savoury, so start with half and build up. Closest match of anything on this list if your jar is a good one.

4. 5Light Soy Sauce Plus Kelp Powder (Vegetarian)

   Different taste

   Use 1 tbsp light soy sauce plus ⅛ tsp kelp or nori powder for every 1 tbsp colatura

   Soy sauce supplies the salt and the glutamate savouriness; the powdered seaweed supplies the marine note that soy alone cannot.

   What changes

   Add a few drops of rice vinegar or lemon to sharpen it.

   Best for

   vegetarian pasta, dressings, vegetable braises, dishes for pescatarian-averse guests

   Convincingly savoury but reads brown and roasted rather than briny, and it darkens a pale sauce, which matters in a dish that is supposed to look like oil, garlic and parsley. Expect a soy-forward finish rather than the sea. Increasing the soy to compensate makes the dish taste of soy, not of anchovy, so hold the ratio and accept the difference.

5. 6Worcestershire Sauce

   Different taste

   Use 2 tsp for every 1 tbsp colatura

   It contains fermented anchovy, so the underlying savoury mechanism is right, and almost every kitchen has a bottle.

   What changes

   Best for

   marinades, braises, meat sauces, Bloody Mary style seasoning

   Brings tamarind sourness, clove, molasses sweetness and vinegar along with the anchovy, so it tastes distinctly of Worcestershire rather than of the sea. Fine in a beef braise or a robust tomato sauce where those flavours disappear, wrong in a delicate Amalfi pasta where they will dominate. Cut any sugar and vinegar elsewhere in the recipe.