A bubbling pasta bake is hard to beat when you want something comforting without spending hours in the kitchen. But if your usual tomato sauce sometimes tastes a little flat, an unlikely ingredient could be the answer.
Anchovy paste can be stirred into the sauce during cooking to add a savoury, umami-rich note. The trick is not designed to make the dish taste fishy, but to give the other ingredients more depth.
Why anchovies work in tomato sauces
BBC Good Food says anchovies add a salty, umami flavour to sauces and dressings, and recommends them in dishes including pasta sauces. The ingredient is particularly useful in tomato-based sauces because anchovy brings another layer of savouriness alongside the tomatoes.
For a pasta bake, simply stir a little anchovy paste through the sauce as it cooks before combining it with the pasta. Once it has been mixed in properly, the paste should become part of the sauce rather than sitting as a noticeable layer.
Seasoning and familiar uses
There is no need to go overboard, particularly because anchovies are naturally salty. BBC Good Food describes them as “umami-rich” and high in sodium, so it is worth tasting the sauce before adding any extra salt.
The technique is already familiar in baked dishes, with BBC Good Food using anchovies alongside garlic, tomatoes, capers and Parmesan in an artichoke and anchovy bake. The anchovies are cooked into the sauce before the dish goes into the oven, showing how they can be used as a background flavour rather than the star of the meal.
A cheap way to boost flavour
It can also be useful for people who do not normally buy anchovies because they dislike the taste. When a small amount is cooked into a sauce, it can provide savoury depth without leaving the same obvious flavour as eating whole anchovy fillets.
The rest of the pasta bake can remain exactly as you normally make it, whether that means mince, vegetables, tomato sauce or plenty of cheese on top. The anchovy paste is simply an extra layer of seasoning that can be incorporated before everything is transferred to the oven.
At around 95p, it is also a relatively cheap experiment compared with changing the whole recipe or buying expensive specialist ingredients. If you already have pasta, sauce and cheese ready to go, a small spoonful of anchovy paste could be all that is needed to make the finished dish taste a little more rounded.
