Good in a crisis … Rachel Roddy's spaghetti with tinned sardines, anchovy, capers, chilli and lemon. Photograph: Rita Platts/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Good in a crisis … Rachel Roddy's spaghetti with tinned sardines, anchovy, capers, chilli and lemon. Photograph: Rita Platts/The Guardian Feast Food Why we’re all hooked on tinned fish Sardines, mackerel, herring, pilchards, sprats and anchovies ... canning only makes the umami flavour better. They’re my top choice for pasta
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Rachel Roddy Thu 27 Aug 2026 14.10 CEST Last modified on Thu 27 Aug 2026 14.11 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google I can’t find it, despite having spent the past 35 minutes looking, but somewhere in the house is The Crisis Cook Book . It’s a standard paperback, postbox-red with white writing on the cover, and full of recipes from chefs including Rowley Leigh , Heston Blumenthal and Jeremy Lee . Not having found it, I needed Amazon to tell me it was published in 2007 and compiled by Nick Lander, at the time the Financial Times’ restaurant correspondent. He asked 28 chefs to donate three recipes – their favourite starter, main course and dessert – and proceeds from the book went to the national homelessness charity Crisis.
The reason I needed (and still need – it is now a mission) to find the book is because inside it is Rowley’s recipe for pasta with tinned sardines, fennel, chilli and lemon zest. It’s a recipe that I have made so many times, and for so many years, that I don’t need to look at the book; but, equally, because I’ve made it so many times and so much time has passed, I have no idea how far I have drifted from the original, and want to check. I’ve even written about this recipe in my weekly Guardian column, without referring to the book or even mentioning Rowley! Not that a store-cupboard version of the Sicilian pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines and wild fennel) is owned by anyone, although Rowley did teach me.
So here I am, setting the record straight, Rowley taught me to – and this is approximate – soften thinly sliced red onion, fennel and red chilli in lots of olive oil, add a tin of sardines (mashed), then toss the lot with al dente pasta, minced parsley and enough lemon zest to scent the pasta and the kitchen. It’s a meal that is not only deeply delicious but also thrifty, because a small amount of fish goes a long way.
In short, tinned fish rules. It gives a product with a notoriously short life an extremely long one, thus drastically reducing the risk of food waste. Sardines, mackerel, herring, pilchards, sprats and anchovies are my tinned fish of choice – tasty, rich in essential omega 3 fatty acids and, if watchfully sourced, sustainable. That sourcing is very important, though ( sardine stocks in some parts of the world are struggling), so I’d recommend keeping an eye on the Marine Conservation Society’s Good Fish Guide . The other thing about tinned fish is the deep umami flavour that can develop during the curing and canning process, especially when the fish is preserved in a good-tasting brine or oil.
View image in fullscreen Flexible and thrifty … Rachel’s potato and tinned fish cakes. Photograph: Rachel Roddy/The Guardian And now, more than ever, it’s easier to find fish preserved in these delicious brines and oils thanks to enterprises such as Mitch Tonks’s Rockfish in the West Country and Sea Sisters in Dorset, both of which take great care with their canning,…