sardine pie (tortino di sardelle)

[spaghetti]

Sardine pie (tortino di sardelle)
Sardines (sardina pilchardus) are still VERY cheap fish in my country. With less than 2 euros I can cook a dinner for a family. (Of course I dont' spear them, too small target).
Ingredients for two or three persons:
500 grams fresh sardines
500 grams finely grated bread
a spoonful of balsamic vinegar.
extravirgin olive oil
a garlic clove
half glass white dry wine
a little salt and pepper
fresh lemons
How to proceed.
1) Wash the sardines, take off the heads, open the fillets and take away guts and the whole spine trying NOt to split the fillet (this one requires a bit of manual skill), leaving the tail where it is. Wash again the cleaned fillets and let them rest each side by side on a pan (don't make piles: each fish side by side), where you spread on half glass of white wine, 4 spoonfuls of olive oil and a pick of pepper.
2) in a jar mix the grated bread, 4 spoonfuls of olive oil, one or two picks of salt, more pepper and the finely minced garlic.
3) cover the sardine pan with the mix of grated bread and stuff.
4) cook in preheated oven at 200 C° for say some 15 minutes. Pull the pan out when the bread cover turns blonde.
5) Pour on the whole the fresh juice of two lemons and serve, cutting the "pie" in square slices, accompanied with your favourite salad and a cool dry white wine.

[Marwan]

so, birthday boy, thats the italian spearo's version of a birthdaty cake ?

[podge]

Ah the Italian Gordon Ramsey does it again.
Spot on my friend I’ll try it at the weekend.

[Oldsarge]

Won't have much time to try that before I get back in July, but I'll bet that fresh queenfish (what we call herring on the CalCoast) would work a treat. They're easy to catch on a blue feather jig off the pier . . . especially after the half-day boat comes back and anglers are cleaning their catch!

[maytag]

Spaghetti,
I have special guests coming over for dinner Sunday and I remembered your sardine pie recipe. I thought the pie would be an interesting dish to serve, so I came back to check it out but:

- We can't get fresh sardines here, and...

- Do you eat the tails? You say to leave the tails on... - do people spit it out when they get that part in the pie?

Cheers to you for always intriguing recipes!

[spaghetti]

Fresh anchovies will do. I don't know what sort of fish you have access to ober there, but any small fish with very thin skin, bones and scales will do. Just check the oven time depending on the size of the fish: don't let it burn!. Just take care to "grease" the bottom of the pan or casserole with a very thin film of olive oil or butter (maybe forgot this in the recipe above!). You can also use a sheet of paper oven under all.
Now for the tail thing, it's just to avoid destroying the fillets: leaving the tail where it is helps to keep them whole in one peace. And then it's such a small tail that your guests won't notice at all.
Kiss you.

[land shark]

I learned a while ago from a local Italian chef that anchovies were often used for an alternative for salt in a recipe. So every now and then when I clean out the fridge I toss some sardines or anchovies in the mix. It produces some very intresting results. For example sardines are really good with brown rice. and beans too. Not to mention my fav garlic bread and pain ol sardines in oil.

[maytag]

Originally Posted by spaghetti

Fresh anchovies will do. I don't know what sort of fish you have access to ober there, but any small fish with very thin skin, bones and scales will do. Just check the oven time depending on the size of the fish: don't let it burn!. Just take care to "grease" the bottom of the pan or casserole with a very thin film of olive oil or butter (maybe forgot this in the recipe above!). You can also use a sheet of paper oven under all.
Now for the tail thing, it's just to avoid destroying the fillets: leaving the tail where it is helps to keep them whole in one peace. And then it's such a small tail that your guests won't notice at all.
Kiss you.

Hi Spaghetti,
Thanks so much - went to the grocer's but the only whole fish were really big. For some reason, it seems to me that there is a greater variety of fish that is sold and eaten elsewhere in the world! I keep hearing about "snoek" dishes in SA and I wonder, what is snoek?

No fresh sardines, but lots of sardines that come in cute little tins...

I'm bummed not to be able to make this but will look back in this forum - would be neat to serve a DB dish as there are always great stories/people that go with them.

Take good care and thanks! Much appreciation,
maytag

[Mr. X]

Fresh anchovies...hmm. They come in tiny tins here and cost a lot .

Tasty sounding recipe. You can sometimes get fresh sardines here now, not for 2 euros though (so much for the common market!). Re. tinned sardines ... I found grilling them until they bubble enhances the flavour considerably, they taste much more like fresh ones then.

[Oldsarge]

I do believe that smelt would work nicely and they are easy to net by lowering a large, spread out net and sprinkling bread crumbs over it. The idea was originally to obtain halibut bait but why waste something that good on a halibut?

[Mr. X]

Originally Posted by Oldsarge

I do believe that smelt would work nicely and they are easy to net by lowering a large, spread out net and sprinkling bread crumbs over it. The idea was originally to obtain halibut bait but why waste something that good on a halibut?

You mean like this?:

We get them occasionally. I think they are sometimes called white bait here (the pub on Chesil Beach sells them for lunch):


But we normally cook them in batter (standard British recipe for fish?!), like this:


...but the last ones I had (frozen) were not that special, so this recipe might be just the thing to try.

[Oldsarge]

Smelt can be netted like that farther north but ours don't run up rivers . . . and that's a good thing since all of ours are cement bottomed these days. We hang an "umbrella net" down next to floating docks then spread bread crumbs over them. The smelt come out from under the dock to eat the crumbs and then we net them. Ours probably aren't true smelt but that's what they're called locally. Still, I'm sure that they'd work just as well in a pan . . .

[Oldsarge]

Hot damn! Just found out that my local Chinese supermarket carries frozen sardines. Y'gotta luuuuuv diversity!

[spaghetti]

Originally Posted by Oldsarge

Hot damn! Just found out that my local Chinese supermarket carries frozen sardines. Y'gotta luuuuuv diversity!

Dinner! Don't forget to grease the pan with a film of oil or butter before putting the sardines on. A sheet of oven-paper under all may help.