PICKLED SARDINES FOR CROSTINI

 

I love fresh sardines, but until recently, they were hard to find in the area where we live. Lately, I have found a fish shop where they seem to have them most of the time, and I am really enjoying to try different recipes. This time, I followed a recipe from Stephanie Alexander to pickle them. She mentions in her cookbook Home, that she learnt this recipe from a Sicilian woman from WA. It is so simple to make if you follow the instructions carefully! And we were amazed about how delicious they are. I didn't have any fresh parsley at home, so we just had a small nibble and had one with the sardine by itself, and the other with romesco sauce I had previously made (recipe at the bottom of this page) and that took it to another level altogether. Scrumptious recipe!!

Ingredients

fresh sardine fillets

kitchen salt

best-quality red-wine vinegar

extra-virgin olive oil

dried oregano

sliced or minced garlic

freshly sliced red chilli or Alepo pepper flakes

Preparation

Arrange the filleted fish in a single layer in a non-reactive dish. Sprinkle generously with kitchen salt and refrigerate for 2 hours. 

Rinse off the salt and generously cover the fish with the vinegar. Refrigerate for another 2 hours.

 

Make sure you have very clean hands. The fish must now be very well drained and patted dry with paper towel. The best way is to squeeze each sardine in your hands over the sink of a deep bowl, pat it dry and then transfer it to a plate before moving onto the next one.

Select a suitable container in which to store the pickled sardines. It must be scrupulously clean and non-reactive (so, preferably glass or glazed ceramic), and preferably have a well-fitting lid. 

To layer the sardines, pour olive oil into your container to a depth of 5 mm. Follow this with a tight layer of the drained fillets, packing them in with clean hands.

Sprinkle over just a little dried oregano, garlic and chilli (not too much as they can get very strong over time).

Add more olive oil. Continue to layer the fillets and the flavouring until you run out of fillets. Then, cover the sardines with olive oil, pressing down on the top layer with a flexible spatula to release any trapped air.

Put on the lid and refrigerate.

Extract sardines as you need them with a clean fork. Press down on the remainder of the sardines to ensure they are still covered with the oily juices, then close with the lid and return the container to the fridge.

To make the crostini, cut a baguette into thick slices and toast. Add a sardine on top. You can finish it with some fresh chopped parsley if you wish. I actually served half of them with romesco sauce that I had prepared a couple of days before, and it was amazingly delicious. 

Here is the recipe for the romesco:

Ingredients

50 g of roasted almonds and hazelnuts without salt

2 ñoras (without stem or seeds) or two teaspoons of paprika

2 anchovy fillets or 1 smoked sardine fillet

1 - 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley

1 slice of fried bread

130 ml of extra virgin olive oil (and a little more to drizzle)

1 clove of raw garlic and one of roasted garlic

150 g canned crushed tomatoes

20 g of vinegar

3 pinches of ground black pepper

½ teaspoon of salt

Preparation steps

Put the almonds, hazelnuts, ñoras or paprika, bread and anchovies in the glass of a food processor. Chop until you get a very fine mixture. Remove the chopped ingredients to a bowl and set aside.

Put 30 g of oil, minced garlic and tomato in a small pot. Cook for 5 min stirring every so often.

Add the reserved minced mixture, tomato, parsley, vinegar, pepper and salt to a blender and process until well combined. Add a 100 mm of oil by pouring it little by little over the lid. Remove the sauce to a bowl. Serve the romesco sauce to accompany fish.