Anchovies in vinegar are a dish every Mediterranean coast has in some version of its own - small fish, vinegar, garlic, parsley, nothing more. Madrid chef Alex Marugan takes that base and adds a Peruvian salsa acevichada, a sauce inspired by ceviche. The result, a permanent fixture on the menu at his restaurant „Pacto Raiz”, does not lose the essence of marinated fish - it just moves it onto different ground.

The base is made the classic way: 600 grams of cleaned and previously frozen anchovies, 100 millilitres of white wine, sherry or apple vinegar, salt, three cloves of garlic, olive oil and parsley. Freezing is not a flavour tip but a mandatory step with raw fish.

The sauce is where the recipe gets interesting. First a mayonnaise: three eggs and 350 millilitres of sunflower oil blended with a stick blender from the bottom of the container, lifting gradually until the emulsion sets. Into that base then go 30 grams of soy sauce, four cloves of garlic, 5 grams of deseeded habanero, 100 millilitres of lime juice, 10 grams of celery, 25 grams of parsley including the stalks, salt and pepper. Blend for a few minutes, strain through a sieve pressing well with a spoon, then transfer to a bottle and keep chilled.

Separately, make a roasted garlic emulsion. Wrap a whole head of garlic in foil and roast for 30 minutes, until the cloves are soft and golden. Blend four cloves together with a mayonnaise made from 150 grams of liquid egg and 600 grams of sunflower oil, with a little salt, then strain - without fail. The whole point is a smooth cream, not a lumpy one.

Plating is what turns a tapa into a dish: lay the anchovies along the length of the plate, pour the sauce around them, and dot the roasted garlic emulsion in a circle. On top, cubes of avocado, chalaquita - sun-dried tomato finely chopped with red onion and dressed with lime juice - chopped samphire if you have it, and toasted bread in cubes, not sparingly. Finish with a good pour of extra virgin olive oil.

Marugan is not a chef who discovered fusion yesterday. He left for Mexico very young, then for Saint-Tropez where he worked in Nikkei cuisine, and after returning to Madrid worked with Luis Arevalo and at „Barra M” with Omar Malpartida. At just 25, in 2017, he opened the small „Tres por Cuatro” at the Torrijos market, which after its success moved to a larger space in the Salamanca district and earned a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a Repsol guide recommendation.

Today he runs that restaurant alongside „Pacto Raiz”, opened the „Acorde” beer house in the Goya district this year, and is behind the food offering at „KOMA” at the foot of the Sierra de Guadarrama, where he works with small local producers. With the „Pacto Raiz” team - Rocio Martinez and Andre Chumbe - he recently won again the award for the best „paquito”, the well-known lamb sandwich.

What this recipe says is not about Peru and Spain. It is that marinated small fish is an expensive dish everywhere someone has given it attention - and cheap everywhere nobody has. The difference is thirty minutes of roasting garlic.