Tinned Fish for Lent

Travel, wrote Francis Bacon, the 16th-century essayist, is a form of education. “They who travel into a country, before some entrance into the language,” he wrote, “go to school.”

If you eat around Spain and Portugal on a trip to Europe, you and your kitchen will learn much more about eating tinned fish than its generally singular place for us Americans in the tuna salad sandwich.

“Conservas,” as both the Spanish and Portuguese languages call them, appear there on so many tables and in so many ways—as lunchtime centerpieces, on evening nibble platters, even in breakfast egg preparations.

So, in a manner, travel to the Iberian Peninsula, even though you may not breach our own shores, by opening a tin and enjoying the enormous variety of tinned fish available stateside.

The season of Lent is upon us, with its emphasis on free-standing fish dishes come mealtime. Alone, a tin of fish and some accompaniments fulfill that. But here are several more suggestions for Lenten (and post-Lenten) dining that utilize tinned fish and seafood.

Peel open a tin of tuna preserved in olive oil and use chunks of it to top envelope-sized corn tortillas, dabbed with a soupçon of grainy mustard and a tart cornichon. Mix into cottage cheese a tin of smoked trout or brined cockles or clams, and make of the mix the inner layer to a sandwich using slices of hearty, springy-crumbed rye or levain bread, lightly toasted.

Spanish and Portuguese tinned mussels are commonly preserved in the tangy, vinegary sauce called escabeche. Drain a tin (but not completely) and toss such mussels as the Iberians do, with pasta, minced garlic, lemon zest, and finely chopped mint or basil.

I’ve made the recipe here for Tinned Tuna Sauce to serve atop any manner of sliced prepared or previously cooked then chilled meat: cold cuts, roasted pork loin, chicken tenders or piccata paillards, white meat schnitzel, even more fish itself, such as cooled grilled swordfish or salmon filet.

It is the sauce for the famed Italian preparation of cold veal called Vitello Tonnato. But few of us any longer cook veal. A legion of substitutes for the baby beef awaits.

RECIPE: Tinned Tuna Sauce
Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

Ingredients
1 5- to 7-ounce tin pole-and-line caught tuna in olive oil, drained
5 anchovy filets in olive oil
1 tablespoon capers, packed in salt preferred, rinsed and squeezed
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup mayonnaise, homemade if possible
Freshly ground white pepper, to taste (optional)

Directions
Place all the ingredients except the mayonnaise in the bowl of a food processor and pulse and process until very smooth, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.

Scrape the contents of the processing bowl into a larger bowl and gently but thoroughly fold in the mayonnaise and optional black pepper. Check for salt seasoning level. (Additional salt may be unnecessary because the tinned fishes and capers, the latter though rinsed, may add sufficient salt.)