Eating Anchovies Without Judgment

Italy is a magical place for many reasons: the beautiful people, the history, the ruins, the museums, and of course, my favorite – the food. A sub-category to that last one is a lesser known reason to love Italy:

Traveling Thy can eat anchovies without judgment!

Yeah, I said it. ANCHOVIES!

I have always loved anchovies. They are delightful fillets of salty goodness that satisfy me every single time.

Growing up, my idea of a perfect pizza could only be shared with my parents, my brother and my sister. Everybody else gives me looks of confusion and disgust when I suggest we order pizza with anchovies.

Come to think of it, I used to actually buy anchovy fillets from Trader Joe’s on a regular basis. I would put them on top of my frozen pizzas just before I put them in the oven.

Here in Italy, it’s perfectly normal. I don’t have to be a closet anchovy-lover here! A pizza topped with anchovies even has its own name: Napolitana.

In fact, you can eat many things with anchovies in Italy.

Just the other day, my host and chef extraordinaire, Vittorio, made a brilliant concoction that blew my mind! It was baked zucchini flowers (petals intact!) drenched in his famous homemade olive oil and topped with a very thin layer of melted white cheese. On top of that was – you guessed it – a layer of anchovies and anchovy sauce!

I wanted to eat the entire batch. AND lick the baking pan. I was even eyeing everybody else’s plate to see if I could steal their serving. I might’ve even cried a little when the last piece was taken.

It was SO! GOOD!

Have you ever eaten anchovies? It always amazes me when people say they don’t like something they’ve never tried. And when I say “try” I mean balls-out-give-it-a-real-chance-without-plugging-your-nose “try.”

But hey, if you don’t want those anchovies on our pizza, it just means more for me. So bring it on.