Photo: keith kendall/Flickr

For many Americans, fish in a can starts and ends with tuna. Big mistake, I think. Not only is canned tuna often not sustainable (think of the dolphins!) or healthy (think of the mercury! the BPA!) or, frankly, appetizing (think of… well, many a tuna fish sandwich you may have eaten!), there are so many other, delicious choices worth delving into for around the same cost.

I’m a big fan of sardines and smoked oysters, but recently I’ve also fallen for anchovies in a big way. Something about them seems so Old World, so Mediterranean-essential, that they’re instantly more romantic than anything in a can has any right to be (you can even find them coiled up around little capers – these are great for a cheese plate or for when you make pasta puttanesca).

This white bean salad with anchovies and Muscat grapes from My French Kitchen seems so perfect for here and now – but it is also strange, and intriguing, and ambiguously foreign. I want to make it for a light dinner in lieu of spending too much money on tapas.