Stuffed Fresh Sardines Recipes

STUFFED SARDINES, SICILIAN STYLE

Steps:

• 1 Place a rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Oil a small baking pan. 2 In a large skillet, toast the bread crumbs over medium heat, stirring constantly, until browned. Remove from the heat and stir in just enough oil to moisten them. Add the anchovies, parsley, pine nuts, raisins, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. 3 Open the sardines like a book and place them skin side down on a flat surface. Spoon a little of the bread crumb mixture at the head end of each sardine. Roll up the sardines, enclosing the filling, and place them side by side in the pan, separating each with a bay leaf. Sprinkle any remaining crumbs over the top and drizzle with the remaining oil. 4 Bake 20 minutes or until the rolls are just cooked through. Serve hot or at room temperature with lemon wedges. From "1,000 Italian Recipes." Copyright 2004 by Michele Scicolone. Used with permission of the publisher, Wiley Publishing, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

SICILIAN STUFFED SARDINES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Put the breadcrumbs, olives, parsley, mint, lemon zest, anchovies and garlic in a food processor, and blitz until everything is roughly chopped. Tip into a bowl and stir through the pine nuts, sultanas, chilli flakes (if using) and a good grinding of black pepper. Arrange the fennel slices in a small roasting dish and drizzle with a little olive oil.
• Working methodically, lay each fish fillet, skin-side down, on your work surface, cover with some of the crumb mixture, then drizzle ½ tsp olive oil over each. Roll up the fillets, leaving the tails sticking up. Use a cocktail stick to secure, then stuff a little more of the crumb mixture into the sides.
• Arrange the rolled-up sardines on the fennel, scatter over the remaining crumb mixture, then pop the slices of lemon and bay leaves in the gaps. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil and season with sea salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for 20 mins until the fish is cooked through and the crumbs are golden and crisp in places. Serve scattered with the fennel fronds.

STUFFED FRESH SARDINES

Steps:

• Blend together ginger, peppers, onion and grated toast. Add seasoning, salt and water. Mix well together and set aside.
• Wash and place sardines on a chopping board and remove scales by holding each firmly and carefully using a sharp knife to stroke the scales in an upward motion.
• When scales are removed, make a diagonal slit on each side and cut fish gently beneath the head without cutting the head off, and without cutting through the centre bone. Turn fish and repeat the same action on the other side. Cut the tail fin off.
• Loosen the flesh around the centre bone by gently squeezing the flesh to release it from the centre bone. Hold the head and tail of the fish and gently pull the bone out from the head end. Season with salt. Divide the blended mixture into 6 portions and stuff each boneless cavity with a portion of the mixture.
• Leave in the fridge for about 20 minutes to marinate and fry sardines in shallow oil on medium heat until each side is golden brown. Drain and garnish with toasted sliced almonds and serve as an accompaniment to any dish.
• ??Tip:
• Once fish is stuffed with mixture, it can be fried, grilled or barbecued and is delicious hot or cold.