The One Ingredient That's Been In My Family's Pasta Recipe For Generations

Italian families safeguard recipes like heirlooms: For a young country that produced a huge diaspora, plagued by political turmoil for much of its history, cooking represented the comfort of stability and tradition, an invisible thread from one generation to the next. My family is no exception: We've been cooking pasta al limone, lemon pasta, for decades. But my relatives have one secret ingredient that might come as a surprise, as it came to me: anchovies.

Over at my grandparents' summer house in the Italian Riviera, lemon trees grow alongside the olive groves and bougainvilleas on the roadsides and gardens, infusing the air with a heady citrus aroma. A simple lemon pasta is a dish that brings me back to my childhood: Made with pasta, a clove of garlic sizzled in butter, some fresh herbs — basil, rosemary, parsley, or marjoram all work — and then the one little addition that I discovered to my dismay many years later — a teaspoon of anchovy paste. Like many others, I've never been much of an anchovy enthusiast. Indeed, the pesky little forage fish — which is actually a superfood packed with protein and healthy omega fats — puts many people off for its unappealing, slimy texture and sharp saltiness. However, they disappear right into the sauce, adding umami and depth that it would otherwise lack.

Anchovies have been described as the "bacon of the sea" by yours truly and gastronome extraordinaire Nigella Lawson, and I can't think of a more fitting description. Its deep umami saltiness infuses everything with a savory depth that makes food taste better without necessarily tasting fishy. Like many, I fundamentally dislike anchovies, seeing them as tinny and unpleasantly briny. It was in my late teens when I saw my grandmother adding a teaspoon of the paste to the preparation for her lemon pasta that I realized I'd been eating them all along. It took some time to adjust psychologically, but now, I haven't looked back — I add it any time I'm making a lemon pasta.

Using anchovies in pasta sauce isn't some anomaly or family quirk of mine: It's a part of Italian tradition. Italian-born chef Giada de Laurentiis even has her own favorite anchovy paste. In the soffritto — the initial preparation, or "base," of a sauce, typically featuring garlic, onion, celery, and other seasonings fried in oil, anchovies are usually added for saltiness. In Rome, for instance, sardines and anchovies are often added to veggie salads — "puntarelle," the most famous — and to mozzarella and zucchini flowers, one of the city's classic dishes. You can also upgrade your tomato soup, put them in deviled eggs, or add them to a vinaigrette for roasted cauliflower. Any dish you make will leap in quality if you make the leap of faith — and get over your mental block.