anchovy sauce

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A salty, savory sauce made by mixing mashed anchovies into a cream sauce

noun
/ˈænʧoʊvi sɔs/

: salsa de anchoas

The chef prepared a unique dish by adding anchovy sauce to the pasta.

Examples

For a delicious flavor, drizzle anchovy sauce over your grilled vegetables.
I think they call it anchovy sauce.

The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
Anchovy sauce.

The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
He mixed anchovy sauce into the dressing for a savory kick in the salad.

Surface Forms

anchovy sauce singular

anchovy sauces plural

Morphology

anchovy + sauce

The meaning 'a sauce made from mashed anchovies' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'anchovy' (the ingredient) and 'sauce' (a condiment). This noun+noun culinary pattern is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the MWE.

Etymology

Anchovy sauce gets its name from the simple picture of mashing small, salty fish called anchovies into a creamy or oily sauce to give food a strong, savory taste. So, it is used today as 'a savory condiment' or 'topping' to make vegetables, pasta, and other dishes taste richer.