Anchovy & Butter Crostini

This simple crostino is about as unlikely a combination of ingredients as you’ll find. Dairy and seafood rarely play well together, but the deliciousness of these flavors is indisputable: preserved anchovies from the eastern coast of Sicily procured from our dear friend Baldo Scalia, and freshly made butter atop a crisp tranche of buckwheat rye blend cream, brine, and the dense nuttiness of the bread. All across Italy, this crostino, also called burro e alici, is a beloved antipasto. In fact, in Rome, where it enjoys particular adoration, if you want to say something has gone well, you can say that it went “a burro e alici.” When guests come to my beach house in East Hampton, I always like to have a plate of burro e alici awaiting them. I have to admit, I don’t often make my own butter, but Sheena does, and it makes all the difference. Instead I focus on the proportions: the most important thing for me is to use enough of the butter that you can see it spread beneath the anchovies but not so much that you get a mouth full of it.

Serves 4

1 quart heavy cream

1 cup buttermilk

⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt

4 thick slices buckwheat rye bread

20 anchovy fillets, packed in olive oil (approximately 1 tin, preferably Sicilian or Cantabrian)

1. Prepare the butter by mixing together the cream and buttermilk in a nonreactive container. Let sit at room temperature overnight until thick.

2. Using a whisk attachment in a mixer, beat the mixture at medium speed until it breaks into curds (solids) and whey (liquid).

3. Pour the mixture slowly through a cheesecloth, allowing the whey to flow into a bowl. Knead the curds to force out as much whey as possible.

4. Add salt to the curds and knead again. Transfer the solids into a nonreactive container and let chill, covered, overnight.

5. To serve, grill or toast the buckwheat rye for a little color. Cut the toasts into halves or thirds. Spread a good amount of butter on each piece. (You want the butter to be a visible layer.) Then, equally divide the anchovies and layer atop the butter. Serve immediately.

“That little hole in the wall is unbelievable!”

—JOSEPH LAUTO