Well, within reason of course. In smaller quantities it is an excellent source of umami and a killer "special ingredient" for dishes that can benefit.

Throw it on a pizza, and all I taste is fish. This could just be me and my absolute aversion to "fishy" tastes though?

The secret here is in preparation. I had a local place, never asked them how but their anchovies were dry and almost crunchy, and it made the pizza delicious.

If you just take a canned in oil one and throw it on top a pizza before cooking, it permeates everything and can get fishy. I tend to at minimum press them in paper towels to get the oil out, then cut them into smaller bits. It's decent, but still can't match the pizza places's secret.

Elaboration, type of oil used and time to curation counts. I assume that cheap Pizzas use cheaper lower quality versions of this product that can be disappointing. There are fake products or products that use third grade anchovies (with fishes smaller or crushed that are much more cheap).

When you buy the correct size fishes, in the right season, with the correct firm of the meat, and then curate it at a barrel at home for many months, the difference is spectacular.

All true. Even in the low tier/tin can grade, you have to be careful with brand.

King Oscar for example is by far the worst I've ever tried. Cento is miles better. This isn't just flavor, but texture, size, and firmness. King Oscar smudges into paste just picking them up, in my experience.

Fun anecdote: I only ever use a few anchovies on a pizza as not to overwhelm it, and would give some scraps to the bloodhound. He loved them. He refused to eat King Oscar anchovies. He'd get excited, run up, sniff them, then back away.

As someone who very much likes whole anchovies on pizza or cesar salad; some ppl. can deal with anchovies better in the sauce used in a traditional Sicilian sfincione pizza:

https://www.seriouseats.com/sfincione-sicilian-new-years-piz...

> Throw it on a pizza, and all I taste is fish

For use as a fish rather than an umami ingredient if you're put off by the intense taste maybe try tinned Cantabrian anchovies, they have a much more subtle buttery fish flavor rather than the intense salt fish flavor of

Yeah. But if you chop one up and dissolve it in olive oil before cooking anything else, then it's just umami

Bagna Cauda! I went down the rabbit hole a few winters back trying to perfect that dip and it was awesome. Never "perfected" of course, but I got close enough to really enjoy the recipe. Paired well with the simple dish of olive oil packed tuna, spaghetti, heavy butter and some added capers. So good and very easy to whip up.

I make spaghetti with anchovies, garlic, olive oil and toasted breadcrumbs - it is remarkable how tasty it is!