Anchovy and Rosemary Gravy
Four anchovy fillets melted into the fat with rosemary and garlic, which disappear entirely and leave a lamb gravy with twice the savoury depth.
- Contains meat
- Contains fish
- Dairy free
- lamb
- anchovy
- umami
- rosemary
- Prep
- 5 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Total
- 25 min
- Serves
- 6
- Difficulty
- Easy
Anchovies do not taste of fish once they have melted into hot fat. What is left is glutamate, which is the same savoury hit you get from a long reduced stock, and salt. Italians have been doing this to lamb for centuries. Four fillets in a jug of gravy is undetectable as anchovy and obvious as depth. Serve with roast lamb, lamb shanks or hogget.
Ingredients
Makes about 500ml, enough for six plates
Scaled amounts are rounded to something you can actually measure. Season at the end and trust your mouth over the maths.
Kit
- Saucepan or roasting tin
- Wooden spoon
- Balloon whisk
- Sieve
Method
Warm the fat in a pan over a low to medium heat. Add the chopped anchovies and press them against the base with a wooden spoon. Over two or three minutes they will break down completely and vanish into the fat, leaving a cloudy, strongly savoury oil.
Add the garlic and rosemary and cook for one minute more. Keep the heat low, burnt garlic and burnt rosemary are both very noticeable in a finished gravy.
Stir in the flour and cook for a minute, working it into the fat so there are no dry patches.
Add a ladleful of hot stock and whisk hard until smooth, then add the rest in two goes. Bring it up to a simmer.
Simmer for eight minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon and the rosemary has softened.
Add the red wine vinegar and take it off the heat. Taste it before you even think about salt. Four anchovies bring a surprising amount, and lamb stock often has plenty already.
Strain into a warmed jug, pressing the rosemary against the sieve. If you like the herb specks, skip the sieve and just serve it as it is.
Tips worth knowing
- Four fillets per 600ml is the point where nobody can identify the anchovy. Six is noticeable, eight and you have made a fish sauce. If you are nervous, start with three.
- The anchovies must melt fully into the fat before anything else goes in. If you dump them into liquid they stay as fragments and you will find them on the plate.
- Salted anchovies from a tin are much stronger than the oily jarred sort. If you are using those, rinse them and use two.
- This is one to keep quiet about until after people have eaten. Say anchovy first and half the table will taste fish that is not there.
Change it up
- Add a tablespoon of capers, rinsed and chopped, with the garlic for something sharper that suits lamb chops and grilled meat.
- Stir in a tablespoon of double cream at the end for a rounder sauce, which adds Milk as an allergen.
- Use the same anchovy base with beef stock and a splash of red wine instead of the rosemary for a gravy that goes with steak.
Keeping and reheating
Keeps three days in the fridge and freezes for three months. The anchovy flavour gets slightly rounder overnight. Reheat gently with a splash of stock, whisking as it comes back together.
Questions people ask
Does anchovy gravy taste fishy?
No, provided the fillets are melted properly into hot fat first and you keep to about four per 600ml. What you taste is savoury depth and salt. If it tastes fishy, either too many went in or they were not broken down before the liquid was added.
Why do chefs put anchovies in lamb?
Anchovies are packed with glutamates, the same compounds that make aged cheese and long simmered stock taste savoury. In lamb dishes they add depth and salt at once without adding any obvious flavour of their own. It is a very old Italian and French habit.
Is anchovy gravy suitable for pescatarians?
The gravy on its own is not vegetarian in any case, and this version contains both fish and, if you use lamb fat and stock, meat. Made with olive oil and vegetable stock it would suit a pescatarian, but it must still be declared as containing fish.