Colatura di alici substitutes

Vietnamese nuoc mam or Thai nam pla is made the same way, from anchovies and salt, and does the same job: pure salt plus glutamate savouriness with a marine edge. A first-press, anchovy-and-salt-only brand is closest.

Best for

spaghetti alla colatura, pasta sauces, dressings, braised greens, marinades

Noticeably funkier and more aggressive than colatura, which is clean and almost sweet by comparison, and Thai brands often carry a faint sugar note. A pasta made with fish sauce instead tastes more pungent and slightly barnyard rather than delicately of the sea. Loosen it with a spoonful of pasta water and a small squeeze of lemon to round off the sharp edge, and add it off the heat.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.