Tinned fish, or conserva, is a convention in Spain and Portugal. It’s what you eat once you stomach as much as a tapas bar for a glass of wine. The previous couple of years, seafood preserved in cans — mussels, mackerel, squid, child eels, tuna bellies, wild cockles — bathing in brine or olive oil have caught on right here. Impressed by the Iberian Peninsula’s tinned fishes, Henry and Lisa Lovejoy, pioneers within the sustainable seafood motion who run a seafood enterprise in New Hampshire, launched Freshé — a line of tinned meals that mix sustainably wild-caught skipjack tuna or Norwegian salmon with greens, legumes, olive oil, and spices. The couple works with a centuries-old cannery in Portugal’s coastal metropolis Porto, which produces the merchandise for them. “It’s the oldest cannery in Europe and on the forefront of tinned fish,” says Henry. There are a half a dozen picks with components sourced from the area’s native farms: Barcelona Escalivada has salmon, roasted eggplant, peppers, quinoa, candy onions, and tomato; Provence Nicoise affords a tackle the French salad and contains tuna, fire-roasted peppers, herbs, potatoes, and olives, whereas Thai Sriracha combines tuna with candy and bitter beans, peanuts, greens, and Asian spices. Different meals have flavors of Moroccan, Sicilian, and Mexican cuisines ($4 to $5 every). The pocket-size tins are handy for a nutritious on-the-go snack, or use them to high leafy greens or to toss into pasta. These make a great addition to a pantry — the cans have a four-year shelf life. Obtainable at Massive Y, Roche Bros., and Complete Meals Market areas; Pemberton Farms Market, 2225 Mass. Ave., Cambridge, 617-491-2244, or go to www.freshemeals.com.
Ann Trieger Kurland might be reached at anntrieger@gmail.com.
