Pasta de Peixe

Description: Product resulting from the grinding of fish, seasoned with various ingredients to enhance the palate. It is a heat-sterilised preserve, presented in trunk-conical or cylindrical packages, made of aluminium or tinplate and weighing between 22 and 50 g.

Region: Algarve.

Variants: Sardinha paste. Atum paste. Seafood pasta.

Special feature: Pasta flavored with the fish or seafood that gave rise to it.

History: The fame and reputation of Garum ibericum (a kind of fish paste) dates back to Roman times in the Iberian Peninsula, and this product is so important that Horace, Pliny and Strabo referred to it with great appreciation. The manufacture of this product has followed the technological evolution of traditional canning. It was a product that was little consumed, but its presentation in individual portions and the increase in its durability has led to a growing demand and the consequent increase in production.

To use: It is used as an aperitif, before main meals.

Know-how: The fish, after being headed and gutted, is cooked in water. This is followed by crushing in a mill, at which time the other ingredients are added (tomato or tomato concentrate, olive oil or vege-table oil, herbs, thickeners, etc.). After homogenizing the paste, it is tested for seasoning and packed in the indicated containers and sterilized.

Source: Produtos Tradicionais Portugueses, Lisboa, DGDR, 2001