Anchovy Fillets

Filets d’Anchois (anchovy fillets) teach the discipline of the cold table: salt, oil, colour, and exact arrangement can make a proper first course without heat. Before you touch a pan, know this: the lattice is the dish. It gives every serving anchovy, egg, parsley, caper, and just enough oil in one sharp, handsome bite.

The original assumed a garde-manger station, not a saucier: anchovy halves already softened in oil, eggs cooked and separated, parsley chopped, and a shelf of hors-d’œuvre dishes waiting for service. At home, one jar, one egg, a sharp knife, and a shallow dish do the same work. The brigade quantities disappear, while the narrow fillets, alternating colours, capers, and moderate oil stay because they are the dish. One cook, one stove, one evening.

Keep the anchovies supple with their oil and cut them lengthwise without sawing. If a strip tears, don't discard it. Ça se rattrape: hide the break beneath a crossing strip and continue the pattern. The patient lattice is the one step that matters most.