It’s almost a rite of passage these days for food-lovers to go to Lisbon, come back and wax lyrical about the joys of tinned fish shops. Historically, tinned fish in the UK was regarded as inferior to the fresh stuff, whereas in places like Spain and Portugal only the best is reserved for canning.

Truth is, we’ve had access incredible tinned fish right here in the UK for 25 years. Fish4Ever has been sourcing, canning and selling high-quality fish long before most of us knew there was a world beyond woolly tuna and mushy pilchards. With a serious focus on sustainability, responsible sourcing and leading the charge in global initiatives to push for truly meaningful change, it’s not only a brand you can trust; it’s responsible for some of the tastiest tinned fish in the UK.

With tuna, anchovies, mackerel (including Scottish mackerel), sardines (including DOP-protected Cornish sardines), sprats, salmon and kippers, Fish4Ever’s tinned fish are brilliant simply eaten from the tin with some good bread. However, their quality means they can absolutely transform many a dish from good to great. Here are our favourites using Fish4Ever’s tuna, anchovies, sardines, mackerel and salmon.

Tonnato has enjoyed a bit of a renaissance in recent years. The Italian sauce is, essentially, a tuna mayo that’s blended until silky smooth. Traditionally served with finely sliced meat, it actually really comes into its own when paired with sweet tomatoes. Naturally, that combination makes the perfect sandwich, and serving them open like this with a good few heritage tomatoes on top turns it into something beautiful.

Despite translating as ‘Russian salad’, this is a quintessential Spanish tapas dish. Potato, carrot, pea, olive and avocado are chopped and mixed with tuna before everything gets bound together with mayonnaise. Finished with a variety of crunchy, tangy and umami-rich toppings, it’s an incredible thing to spread on bread but the deliciousness of it lives or dies by the quality of the tuna.

This recipe is a little bit legendary within the Great British Chefs team. What seems relatively straightforward on paper – a buttery, cheesy, bright red tomato risotto – is completely transformed by a topping of anchovies, garlic and parsley, all doused in a healthy amount of red wine vinegar. The result is the perfect contrast between rich sweetness and zingy umami. Simple yet incredibly effective.

Rillettes is used in a similar way to pâté but the method of making it is slightly different. Meat or fish are gently cooked in fat, then stored in that same fat as a preservation method. Making rillettes out of tinned fish is super simple as the cooking process has been done for you already, so it’s just a case of breaking up the fish, adding whatever flavourings or aromatics you like, then adding the oil the fish was tinned with back into the mixture. This sardine rillettes is pepped up with olives, hot sauce, herbs and lemon, making it an incredible spread for toast. The quick pickles on the side cut through the richness, but you could easily use something ready-made from the fridge.

A simple salad which allows little sprats to take centre stage, this combination of flavours is tough to beat. The sweet, saline sprats are tempered by the tang of preserved lemon and aniseed sweetness of fennel. A basic dressing of oil, honey and vinegar is all that's needed to bring everything together, with torn sourdough strewn throughout for ballast.

Sri Lankan might not be the first place you think of when it comes to cuisines using tinned mackerel, but this classic ‘short eat’ (snack) has always used it. The tinned mackerel is flaked into a mixture of highly spiced crushed potatoes, before being coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried. They’re incredibly moreish and the mackerel’s bold flavour means it doesn’t get overpowered by the chilli, garlic and spices.

A good fish cake is great; a bad one is, well, bad. This one is thankfully the former, with equal parts salmon and potato. The recipe uses fresh salmon but tinned is actually even better here (provided it is excellent quality). Fried and served in a quick lime dressing for sweet acidity and garnished simply with rocket and capers, it’s a beautiful starter that really lets the quality of the fish shine through.

If you like smoked fish, a kipper is about as good as it gets – deeply aromatic and rich with a real sweetness running throughout. Whole kippers can, however, be a bit of a pain to prep and eat, with a large bone-to-meat ratio. Tinned kippers do away with all that fuss and give you the pure flavour of kipper without any of the bones. That makes them perfect for this beautiful pâté – just swap out the picked kipper meat for tinned kipper, then enjoy it spread on toast. The horseradish, paprika and lemon play subtle supporting acts, allowing the flavour of the fish to shine through.