Tinned Fish Recipes: Sardines, Mackerel, Tuna, Anchovies and Cockles

These tinned fish recipes come from my kitchen at Casa Adora in Jaén and from the cupboard in Florie, my campervan. In Spain the tin is proper food, with sardines, mackerel, bonito, anchovies, cockles, mussels and squid sold in tins that are meant to be eaten as they come, and I cook with them the same way. I write for a mostly UK audience, so these are tinned fish recipes UK cooks will recognise: pâtés, salads, hashes and bakes you can make with an ordinary supermarket tin, alongside a few tapas built around the tinned shellfish and squid I buy here. Most are scaled for one.

This page sorts the tinned fish recipes by the fish in the tin, so you can start with whatever is in your cupboard.

Jump to: Which Recipe? · Sardines · Mackerel · Tuna and Bonito · Anchovies and Boquerones · Cockles, Mussels and Squid · Tins From My Cupboard

Which Tinned Fish Recipes Should I Cook?

Start with the kind of meal you want.

• Breakfast or brunch: Casa Adora Sardine Brunch Skillet.
• A quick lunch in ten minutes: Warm Tinned Mackerel, Feta and Herb Salad.
• Something to spread on toast: Sardine Rillettes, Bonito Pâté with Pickled Guindilla Peppers or The Ultimate Tuna Pâté.
• A store cupboard dinner: Tuna and Vegetable Bake or Tinned Tuna with Braised Peppers and Capers.
• A warm bowl on a cold night: Mackerel Soup with White Beans and Tomato.
• A tapa with a drink: Cockles Montadito, Berberechos al Natural or Tinned Squid in Escabeche on Cachelos.
• A warm supper from a tin: the warm potato and mussel salad in Tinned Mussels in Escabeche.
• From the van, with almost no washing up: the RidgeMonkey Fish Bake.

Tinned Sardine Recipes

Tinned sardine recipes need little more than a skillet or a fork.

• Casa Adora Sardine Brunch Skillet – A resourceful, flavour-packed brunch using tinned sardines, cooked in a cast iron skillet at home in the village.
• Sardine Rillettes Recipe – Recreating Le Bistrot de Halles in Limoges on the Asturian coast. Conservera Española sardines, fork-mashed with fresh cheese, shallot, parsley and cayenne.

If you have fresh sardines rather than tinned, I cook them in Butterflied Sardines with Crispy Chilli Breadcrumbs.

Tinned Mackerel Recipes

• Tinned Mackerel Recipes – A campervan-friendly collection of fast, resourceful meals from a single tin.
• Tinned Mackerel Veggie Hash – Quick and easy with a proper vegetable base.
• Mackerel Couscous with Vegetables – Bio integral couscous, tinned mackerel, fresh vegetables and a splash of hot sauce. Born in a Moroccan restaurant in Normandy in 1997.
• Mackerel Soup with White Beans and Tomato – A tin of mackerel in tomato sauce simmered with onion, garlic and white beans. A one-pan soup for one, made in the campervan on a chilly autumn night.
• Warm Tinned Mackerel, Feta and Herb Salad with Lemon–EVOO Dressing – A proper van lunch: tinned mackerel warmed briefly in olive oil and lemon, laid over lamb's lettuce and rocket with feta, egg and cherry tomatoes. Ready in under ten minutes.
• Mackerel Salad — My Psarosalata Plate – A tinned mackerel salad plate inspired by Greek psarosalata, with feta, cherry tomatoes, piquillo peppers, white asparagus, leftover potatoes and a hard boiled egg.
• Nearly Fortnum's Potted Mackerel – Tinned mackerel, bio ghee, lemon, parsley and smoked paprika. The potted fish tradition, twenty minutes, one small jar.
• Making the Most of Your Supplies: A Simple RidgeMonkey Fish Bake – Tinned mackerel, leftover veg and a tin of baked beans, layered and cooked low and slow in the RidgeMonkey.
• Smoked Mackerel Pâté for One – Nardín smoked mackerel loin blended with mascarpone, crème fraîche, lemon and chives. Vacuum-packed rather than tinned, but it sits happily with the potted fish.

If you have fresh mackerel rather than tinned, I cook it in Pan Fried Mackerel with Garlic Refrito: Verdel a la Plancha for One, a Cantabrian lunch made on the gas hob in the van, and in Mackerel Escabeche: Escabeche de Caballa for One, a Casa Adora dish left overnight in a warm vinegar sauce. All of the fresh, smoked and tinned mackerel recipes are gathered in my Mackerel Recipes guide.

Tinned Tuna and Bonito Recipes

• Tinned Tuna Recipe — Braised Peppers with Capers – Braised red and yellow peppers with tinned tuna, capers and lemon, cooked overlooking the lit windmills of Puerto Lápice.
• Tuna and Vegetable Bake – A store cupboard bake with homemade béchamel, sweetcorn, green beans and melted cheddar. Honest, filling, and considerably better than it sounds.
• The Ultimate Tuna Pâté – A resourceful way to turn tinned or fresh trimmings into a proper tapa.
• Bonito Pâté with Pickled Guindilla Peppers – Conservas Ortiz bonito in olive oil, butter, pickled guindilla peppers and lemon, blitzed in the van. A Basque classic in a ramekin.

For fresh tuna rather than tinned, my Tuna Steak Recipes cover searing, crusting and spicing.

Anchovy and Boquerones Recipes

• Pâté de Boquerones con Ajo Suave – Cantabrian boquerones in olive oil, blended with confit garlic, cream cheese, capers and lemon. A punchy, deeply savoury pâté that comes together in ten minutes.
• How to Serve Boquerones en Aceite – The definitive guide to serving the perfect vinegar-cured anchovy.
• Garlicky Chicken With Lemon-Anchovy Sauce (Single Leg Version) – A single chicken leg with a garlicky lemon-anchovy sauce.

Tinned Cockles, Mussels and Squid

• Cockles Montadito Recipe — A Quimet & Quimet Moment – Tinned cockles piled on buckwheat sourdough with strained yoghurt and yellow pepper ribbons, a Barcelona tapas bar classic rebuilt in the van.
• Berberechos al Natural – Spanish tinned cockles sizzled in smoked paprika and garlic oil, spooned over dark buckwheat sourdough.
• Four Bean Salad with Mussels and Bulgur Wheat – White beans, black beans, chickpeas and altramuces with tinned mussels, bulgur wheat and a cider vinegar dressing. Four pulses, one tin, fifteen minutes.
• Tinned Mussels in Escabeche: What a €1.50 Tin Really Costs – The sums behind a €1.50 tin of Chilean mussels, plus a warm potato and mussel salad dressed with the escabeche sauce.
• Tinned Squid in Escabeche on Cachelos: A Tapa for One – Small pieces of squid in escabeche sauce, gently warmed and poured over Galician-style boiled potatoes. A quick tapa from a tin.

If you have fresh squid rather than a tin, I cook it in Calamares a la Gallega: Squid in Paprika Tomato Sauce with Cachelos, my copy of a tapa from an Asturian bar.

Tinned Fish Recipes: Tins From My Cupboard

A few of the tins behind these tinned fish recipes, in case you want to look for the same ones.

• Sardines: Conservera Española sardines for the rillettes.
• Bonito: Conservas Ortiz bonito in olive oil for the bonito pâté.
• Boquerones: Cantabrian boquerones in olive oil for the boquerones pâté.
• Cockles: Spanish berberechos al natural for the sizzled cockles and the montadito.
• Mussels: Calvo Chilean mussels in escabeche for the warm potato and mussel salad.
• Squid: Salvamar small squid pieces in escabeche, canned in Murcia, for the tapa on cachelos.
• Smoked mackerel: Nardín vacuum-packed loins from Cantabria. Not cheap, but worth the splurge.

If you enjoy these recipes, you can buy me a coffee ☕ on Ko-fi.

Footnote

These tinned fish recipes are part of my Inland Fish & Seafood and Spanish Recipes collections.
Find more recipes and food adventures here.
Wonky photos, proper food, genuine adventures – The Flexible Chef