Fideuà Negra

Paella gets a lot of righteous love in the culinary world. Its delicious mix of concentrated flavor and balanced texture is lovely to enjoy, but hard to master, even with the right tools. Its noodle-based cousin fideuà (pronounced feed-ay-WAH) is every bit as yummy, easier to make, and in my humble opinion can be even more comforting than its rice-based relative. Especially this version, made with a mix of Ati Manel tinned squid and Conservas de Cambados silky cuttlefish ink and finished with bright pops of chorizo-inspired smoked paprika aioli. The perfect dish to make while ringing in The New Year: it’s fun, festive, vibrant, and made to be shared with people you love.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1x tin Ati Manel Squids in Ink
• 1x jar Conservas de Cambados Cuttlefish Ink
• 6x 8 oz bottles clam juice
• 1 cup elbow fideuà
• ½ yellow onion, minced
• ¼ cup + 2 tbs EVOO
• 1/3 cup neutral oil
• 1x egg yolk
• 2x large garlic cloves, minced
• juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tsp smoked paprika (plus more to taste)
• kosher salt, to taste
• sprig of parsley

1. Add the clam juice and whole jar of cuttlefish ink to a large bowl and whisk until well combined. You can also do this by shaking each together in a large bottle.
2. Heat a 13-inch paella pan or cast-iron skillet over medium and add 2 tbs of EVOO. Add the onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until sweated and translucent. Season with a small pinch of salt. Add the fideuà and stir to combine, toasting for about 1-2 minutes. Open the tin of squid and ogle its beauty. Then empty into the pan and stir until well-combined.
3. Turn the pan up to high and add all of the inky clam juice. Gently stir until the noodles and squid are uniformly distributed in the pan. It will look like a lot of liquid. Note: this ratio will result in fideuà that ends up soft but not mushy, akin to boxed macaroni & cheese. For more al dente noodles, you can half the liquid and freeze the rest for future use.
4. Bring the pan to a rolling boil and the lower the flame to medium-high. Cook continuously, giving it an occasional shake to loosen the noodles up so they spread evenly across the bottom.
5. While the fideuà cooks, start making the smoked paprika aioli by adding the garlic, lemon juice, egg yolk, and pinch of salt to a flat-bottomed cup wide enough to accommodate a stick blender. Blend until smooth and airy. Continue blending while drizzling in the neutral oil until it emulsifies and a mayonnaise-like consistency begins to form. Repeat with the remaining EVOO. Stir in the smoked paprika one teaspoon at a time, adding more to your liking. Transfer to squeeze bottle or cover and set aside.
6. Continue cooking the fideuà until essentially of the liquid has evaporated, turning the pan to low as needed to prevent burning. Turn the pan off only once bubbling becomes much less frequent and less audible, and the surface appears dry. Leave the fideuà on the stove for about 5 minutes before serving to allow a crispy socarrat to form on the bottom of the pan.
7. Squeeze dots of smoked paprika aioli on top and garnish with parsley. Serve with more aioli tableside to your liking.

Enjoy!

Serves 2-4

Harrison Weinfeld aka The Sardinfluencer is a writer, a cook, and a tinned-fish fanatic who’s on a mission to bring sustainably-harvested and responsibly-farmed conserva into home kitchens around the world.

Conservas de Cambados is both a factory and a label living at the intersection of artisanal quality and culinary tradition. Their iconic packaging, inspired by the seafood nets that dot the Galician coastline, is a visual reminder of the history and care that for decades has made this brand the benchmark for gourmet conserva in Spain.

All photos taken by the author

In this article, I’ll unpack their history, discuss what makes their approach to tinned seafood special, and leave you with an original recipe for linguine and clams made with preserved Tunisian lemon and Calabrian chilis.

Nearly four decades ago, mussel wholesaler José Luis Alfonso set out to create a premium gourmet conserva company whose products could showcase the unrivaled splendor of the Galician seafood he grew up eating.

Founding Conservas de Cambados in 1985, his factory focused on sourcing the best raw material possible and treating it with love, care, and intention during every step of the canning process.

And when it came to finding that raw material, he knew he needn’t look further than the nearby Ría de Arousa. As the largest estuary in all of Galicia, for generations its nutrient rich waters and sandy coastlines have created a natural ecosystem for clams as well as the perfect open-water nursery for mussel farming where meterslong ropes of meaty mollusks grow on floating rafts called “Bateas”.

Today, the company is safely and creatively helmed by José’s children Maite and Keko who respectively head up quality control and company direction. What’s new is an increasing stock of fishes and seafood sourced from other parts of Spain. What hasn’t changed is their emphasis on small-batch, artisanal processing. Hauls of scallop and octopus, eels and uni are purchased during peak freshness and processed by the hands of the 50, mostly female artisans who make magic happen in a small factory in José’s hometown of Pontevedra.

Small Sardines in Olive Oil

Opening my box from Caputo’s revealed a trove of eight varieties from this legendary brand. The level of care and quality of the packaging itself is immediately apparent. Each tin arrives to you in a hand-fastened cotton net, boasting bold hues of burgundy, black, navy, and forest green. Conservas de Cambados invented this style of packaging in 1989 and its been an indicator of their excellence ever since. Atop that netting sit premium labels embossed with gold foil that beg you to pick them up and feel them with your hands. The entire experience, outside to in, is textural and inviting. What I’m saying is: the packaging talks a mighty big game. And boy does it deliver.

The Small Sardines in Olive Oil, hauled from the waters off the north of Spain are hand-selected for quality and packed with care in their very same Galician facility. These gourmet swimmers need absolutely no dressing up and would be wasted in any dish where they weren’t showcased front and center. They’ll shine brightest as the headlining act for your next cheeseboard. Pro-tip: always present the tin wrapped when guests arrive and unveil its contents when it’s time to eat.

Barnacles in Brine

Next, I opened a tin I’ve been dreaming of for some years now: the Barnacles in Brine. Known as “Percebes” in Spain, gooseneck barnacles are one of those rare delicacies you have to see and taste to believe. Resembling the claw of some long-extinct prehistoric reptile, these flavor bombs cannot be farmed on bateas like their mussel cousins. Instead, they must be hand-harvested in a death-defying dance from the rocky, surge-slapped cliffs on which they grow with little more than a rope and bucket. It’s a risk worth taking to bring these truly unique mollusks to plate and tin. All to taste their heavenly, coral-colored meat which resembles a mix of clams and escargot. They’re perfect for dunking in an herby aioli or dousing in clarified butter with a dash of lemon.

Cockles in Brine

The Medium-Sized Cockles in Brine, grown in Ría de Arousa (and featured in my recipe below), are packed with care and precision, each clam sitting upright and arranged in a bricked fashion (both to maximize the number per tin and enhance the gourmet experience even more). Before they even hit the can, they are cleaned by hand and examined to ensure not even a single grain of sand makes it into the brilliant bath of clam juice that these babies arrive in. If you’ve never had cockles, these are the cockles to try. They are sweet and tender and buttery smooth. And as perfect for popping pintxos as they are for folding into any recipe that calls for clams, like my take on the Italian classic Linguine Alle Vongole, which follows next:

Linguine and Clams With Preserved Tunisian Lemon and Calabrian Chilis

Linguine and Clams is one of my all-time favorite meals to make at home. While it traditionally calls for fresh manila or littleneck clams, not all of us live in place where those are easily sourced. That’s why, for years now, I’ve made mine with tinned cockles in brine. Undeniably easier and faster, I would also argue that due to the addition of that clammy brine they are packed in, this version of the dish is, dare I say, even more delicious. Today, I’ve taken my recipe one step further by creating it with almost exclusively pantry-friendly items sold by Caputo’s so you can make it at a moment’s notice, whenever those cravings arise.

INGREDIENTS:

● 1x tin Conservas de Cambados Cockles from Galicia in Brine (medium size)
● 1⁄2 lb Rustichella d’Abruzzo Linguine
● 3 tbs Caputo’s Extra Virgin Olive Oil
● 2 tbs unsalted butter
● 4 garlic cloves (thinly sliced)
● 1⁄2 small shallot (minced)
● 1⁄8 tsp Mill Pepper Co. White Pepper (finely ground)
● 1⁄2 cup dry white wine (I used Grüner)
● 1⁄8 Les Moulins Mahjoub Preserved Lemon (rind and pulp separated and finely chopped)
● 2 tbs flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
● Divina Chopped Calabrian Chilis (to taste)
● Sea salt (to taste)

1. Get a large pot of salted pasta water going over high heat. Meanwhile, place a large stainless steel or non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil, garlic and shallot and turn heat down to medium low, stirring until it becomes translucent and soft, being careful not to burn them. Add a pinch of salt.
2. Add pasta to boiling water and cook until al dente or just shy (it will cook a little more in the pan). While pasta boils, Add the white wine to the skillet and deglaze, bringing to medium heat until it reaches a simmer.
3. Once it has reduced by at least a quarter, open the cockles and ogle their beauty. Using the tin lid as a strainer, carefully pour the brine (without the clams) into the skillet. Stir until it begins to simmer, being careful not to scorch it. Stir in the white pepper. Stir occasionally while it reduces, about 2 minutes.
4. Add a ladle of the pasta water and turn heat to medium high. Stir consistently until a glossy sauce begins to form.
5. Once the pasta is cooked, add it all to the skillet (on low) along with the preserved lemon. Stir vigorously until the sauce is glossy and the pasta is well coated. If the sauce is too tight, add more pasta water.
6. Turn the pan off and add the cockles, butter and parsley, tossing until melted and combined. Finally, drizzle on the chopped calabrian chili followed by a couple pinches of flaky sea salt.
7. Serve the skillet family style or plate with more chopped chilis to your liking.

Enjoy!

Serves 3-4

Harrison Weinfeld aka The Sardinfluencer is a writer, a cook, and a tinned-fish fanatic who’s on a mission to bring sustainably-harvested and responsibly-farmed conserva into home kitchens around the world.

Fangst, which means ‘catch’ in both Danish and Norwegian, is on a mission to rediscover the abundance and elegant simplicity of seafood from Scandinavian waters. They do so by marrying Nordic species with Nordic ingredients, creating some of the most uniquely delicious, irresistible, and forward-thinking tins available today.

Today I’ll discuss their history, share what I think makes them special, and show you how to create a gorgeous conserva salad with fresh fennel, burnt citrus, and Fangst’s very own marinated Limfjord mussels.

About a century ago, there were hundreds of canneries dotting the coastlines of Scandinavia, but nowadays that number has dwindled to just a handful. Much like North America, tinned seafood in Northern Europe has for many years been synonymous with bargain prices and supermarket quality, and as a result was largely overlooked.

Enter: Fangst founders Martin and Rasmus, who for years gazed longingly toward their European cousins to the south; places like Spain and Portugal where quality tinned fish is both ubiquitous and widely celebrated. Knowing the abundance of delicious seafood from Nordic waters – much of which was caught for export – the duo set out to create a northern counterpart to Southern Europe’s rich variety of conserva brands.

Today, as the premier contemporary conserva label operating in Northern Europe, Fangst is both looking toward the future and reawakening its region’s storied past, creating products that live at the intersection of sustainability, gastronomic excellence, craftsmanship, and design.

All photos are by the author: FANGST Baltic Sea Sprats smoked with heather and chamomile

By partnering directly with fisherfolk, company managers, fishery scientists, and restaurant chefs, Fangst diligently selects their production partners on a case-by-case basis. This enables them to work with small-batch producers and sustainably pursue less commonly harvested species, rather than solely align themselves with a singular labeling scheme (an approach often better suited for large-format operations).

In addition to making Fangst sustainable, this intention keeps their products nimble, creative, hand-made, and delicious!

Which is all to say, when the fine folks at Caputo’s offered to send me out the full suite of their Fangst products to taste and review, I was expecting to be impressed. What I wasn’t quite prepared for, however, was to encounter what I now consider one of my favorite conserva labels operating in the game today.

Not since I first discovered Conservas de Cambados have I been so instantly smitten with a tinned seafood brand.

This says a lot, too, given that Fangst is a private label, meaning they rely on co-packers in Denmark and Latvia to produce their tins. But even despite this, they’ve already done what is (understandably), very hard for private labels to achieve: they’ve created something new and unique.

As an example, let’s take a look at their Brisling no. 1, Fangst’s Baltic Sea Sprats smoked with heather and chamomile:

Inside a minimalist matte and satin box, awaits Fangst’s iconic, golden tin, a purely aesthetic choice that somehow makes you feel like Charlie, waiting outside the Cockle Factory, golden ticket in hand.

Before cracking the lid, I was already a familiar fan of European sprats; those tender, tiny bait fish that are native to the waters of North-Eastern Europe and taste a lot like baby sardines.

FANGST flash-grilled salmon

But what I was unfamiliar with (in addition to this tin’s botanicals, which we’ll get into shortly) was the excellence of premium rapeseed oil, something that is also native to Nordic countries. For folks who haven’t heard, rapeseed, called “canola” in the US, is high up on a growing list of seed oils that when compared to extra virgin olive oil, are conventionally considered “lesser than.” What I’ve come to learn is that much of this distinction has to do with the industrialized, high-heat, and sometimes chemically-induced processes used to extract the canola that typically adorns our supermarket shelves. However, when it’s cold-pressed in small batches and processed with care, rapeseed oil becomes buttery, nutty, and bright, and every bit as delicious as extra virgin olive oil.

It’s also less overpowering, making it a perfect medium to amplify the subtle melodies of flavors that would otherwise be drowned out by the bold bass of EVOO. And so, cue the mossy heather and sweet chamomile, floral flavors which swirl beautifully around smoky sprats, culminating in a tin that’s unlike anything I’ve ever tasted from southern Europe (or anywhere else for that matter).

Fangst Faroe Islands flash-grilled Salmon

Their other products are equally impressive. The Faroe Islands Salmon, presented as a single, petite fillet, flash-grilled and proudly displayed in a pool of liquid gold is as simple as it is perfectly executed. The blue mussels, slow-grown in the fjords of Denmark to acquire “a particularly fine taste and texture” are sweet, buttery, and irresistibly delicious.

FANGST Smoke Blue Mussels No. 1

And it is these herby and aromatic mussels, marinated with dill and fennel seed that form the base of my original salad which follows below.

To make it at home, head to the shop at Caputo’s for Blamusling No. 1 and while you’re at it, I highly encourage you to fill your cart with whatever other Fangst products they’ve got, if I don’t beat you to it first!

Shaved Fennel Salad with Fangst Marinated Mussels and Burnt Meyer Lemon

Shaved fennel salad – lightly dressed with pops of citrus and something salty – is a dish I make often, especially when it’s hot. And when I tasted the aforementioned Fangst mussels (Blamusling No. 1), I knew these two were a catch made in heaven. A light dressing of neutral oil and apple cider vinegar marries the crisp, raw fennel with burnt wedges of meyer lemon. Topped with the meaty mussels interspersed amongst flavor-bombs of a fennel-garlic aioli (made from the tin oil those marinated beauties came bathed in), and finished with Meyer lemon zest and flaky sea salt, this dish is bright and balanced and bonkers delicious.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tin Fangst Blamusling No. 1 Mussels (marinated in dill and fennel seed)
• 1 medium fennel bulb, split, cored, sliced thin on mandolin (1-2mm slices)
• Fennel frond
• Zest of 2 meyer lemons
• 2 Meyer lemons, peeled, and cut into wedges
• ⅓ Cup avocado oil + 2 tbs, measured separately
• 1 Tsp apple cider vinegar, measured in two ½ tsp portions
• 1 Egg yolk
• 1 Medium clove garlic, crushed
• Flaky sea salt, to taste

To make the aioli, place the egg yolk, crushed garlic, half the fennel frond, ½ tsp of apple cider vinegar, and pinch of salt in a small cup that’s the right size and shape to accommodate an immersion blender. (note: this recipe can also be made with a good whisk, wide mixing bowl, and elbow grease). Blend the ingredients on high until well incorporated. Slowly drizzle the ⅓ cup of avocado oil, blending to emulsify. Crack the lid of the mussels. Ogle their beauty. Gently drizzle the tin oil into the cup, blending to emulsify. Be careful not to lose any of the mussels in the process. Stir in half the lemon zest and salt to taste. Funnel into a squeeze bottle and set aside.

Line a metal baking sheet or tinfoil with the meyer lemon wedges. Hit them with a torch until lightly charred. Flip and repeat. (note: if you don’t own a torch, you can sear them in a hot cast iron skillet instead)

Mix the remaining avocado oil with the remaining apple cider vinegar and a pinch of sea salt.

Toss the fennel in ¾ of the dressing and plate flat on a platter or shallow bowl. Afterward, add the burnt lemon to the mixing bowl and toss with remaining ¼ of the dressing. Carefully arrange the citrus atop the fennel to your liking.

Arrange the mussels next, followed by generous dots of the aioli, the remaining fennel frond and lemon zest and finally a dusting of flaky sea salt.

Enjoy!

Serves 2-4

Harrison Weinfeld aka The Sardinfluencer is a writer, a cook, and a tinned-fish fanatic who’s on a mission to bring sustainably-harvested and responsibly-farmed conserva into home kitchens around the world.