Easy Ways To Make Tinned Mackerel The Star Of Your Next Pasta

While canned anchovies are key to the most flavorful Caesar salad dressing and tinned tuna is the star of countless salads and sandwiches, canned mackerel is the versatile addition your pasta is missing. We consulted Charlotte Langley, founder of Nice Cans and Langley Foods, for her expertise on how best to use store-cupboard safe mackerel in your next pasta dish.

In case you're not familiar with canned mackerel, it's a mild yet umami-laden oily fish that's often compared in flavor and texture to canned tuna. Mackerel's flakey yet firm meat will hold its shape when added to pasta straight from the can, but it's also delicate enough to easily meld into a sauce, too.

Charlotte Langley says, "Mackerel offers a rich, savory taste and packs well into hearty pasta dishes. For an easy dish, combine it with spaghetti, garlic, olive oil, and chili flakes to make a spicy, savory sauce. For a creamy pasta, blend the mackerel into a tomato or cream base, add spinach, and top with lemon zest for brightness."

There are many brands of mackerel available in grocery stores and online. Safe Catch tinned mackerel is mercury tested and packed in olive oil, and this Fishwife slow smoked mackerel has additional chilli and garlic flavorings packed into the can.

Like many tinned fish varieties, mackerel comes packed in water or oil, and there are also tomato packed varieties, expanding its flavor palate and providing even more depth to pasta. Oil-infused canned mackerel with herbs, spices, aromatics, and even olives are especially tasty additions for oil, butter, and tomato-based sauces. You could break up the mackerel fillets to provide chunky flakes to add to this simple special Italian Sunday sauce recipe featuring crushed tomatoes, basil, and aromatics. Alternatively, blend mackerel into this rich and creamy Alfredo sauce to serve over linguine. For another cream-based idea, add canned mackerel to this zesty pasta al limone recipe.

Charlotte Langley's recommendation for creating a sauce out of olive oil and garlic evokes a spaghetti aglio e olio. You can make it spicy with chili flakes or take an even more Italian route by adding Calabrian chilies, as in this recipe for spaghetti aglio e olio with Calabrian breadcrumbs. You could also take a shortcut by using mackerel packed with jalapeños for both an umami and spicy component.

Water-packed canned mackerel will offer a simpler, purer fish flavor that you can add to a more complex pasta sauce with its own list of robust seasonings. For example, you could mash it up and use it instead of tuna in this zippy tuna pasta salad recipe.