About
Pollastrini have tinned sardines at Anzio, on the coast south of Rome, since 1889. They are the only Italian cannery working with Mediterranean fish. This is the plain tin, with sardines, olive oil and salt on the label and nothing after that.
The fish is Clupea pilchardus, the sardine that swims in the Mediterranean. Pollastrini still take it by gozzo, the wooden boat that fishes at night with lamps rigged to draw the shoal in. The catch is sorted by hand while the fish are plump, cleaned, steamed, then laid into the tin with olive oil and salt. Oil accounts for a little under a third of what is inside.
Nothing else goes in. No smoke, no chilli, no water, so what you taste is the fish, the oil and the salt.
Best eaten cool and straight from the tin, with fresh bread and a knob of butter. Fold the leftover oil through pasta or over boiled potatoes rather than pouring it away.
Producer note
Salvatore Pollastrini set the cannery up in 1889, when Anzio boats were landing more sardines than the town could sell fresh. The Sepe family, fishing people themselves, bought it in the 1950s and still run it from the same town.
Flavour
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