Pintxo de Anchoas del Cantábrico

Pintxo de Anchoas del Cantábrico is Basque bar food, from the coast that knows the anchovy: a slice of bread, a strip of sweet piquillo, chopped egg, garlic-parsley oil, and one salt-cured Cantabrian fillet laid on top. Small, yes. Not careless. The anchovy is the dish, and everything else is there to hold it up.

The method that decides it is timing. Toast the bread, dry the piquillo, season the egg lightly, and assemble only at the end so the toast stays crisp and the anchovy keeps its clean, oily shine. Drown it in garlic, leave it sitting, or use a cheap hairy fillet, and you have salt on bread. That's another thing.

If you're far from Spain, no hace falta haber pisado España: buy the best salt-cured anchovies packed in olive oil you can find, even Portuguese or Italian, if they're better than the tin with the pretty label. They may be sharper and leaner than Cantabrian fillets, so use a little less garlic oil and let the piquillo do its sweet work. No piquillos? Jarred roasted red peppers, well dried, are the honest substitute. Raw pepper is not.

Build them in a row and serve them while the bread still answers under the teeth. This is quick cooking, but not lazy cooking. My Margin beside this one says only: the anchovy decides. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.