Baked sardines with sourdough crumbs and heritage tomato salad recipe

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Some dishes taste better outdoors, and this is one of them – the perfect light summer supper for an evening in the garden. This recipe is a homage to the cooking of one woman in Roy’s home town, Tel Aviv. She runs a restaurant though it’s so simple it barely merits the name – on the beach. She opens when she feels like it and closes when she doesn’t and, despite the stripped-back surroundings, everything she touches in her kitchen turns to gold. Her sardine sandwiches are works of art, and they’re what Roy had in mind when creating this recipe.

The oily fish works brilliantly with the sweet acidity of the tomatoes and the sea-saltiness of the anchovies and capers. Sardines and tomatoes are at their best at the same time of year and together their flavours sing of the south and the Mediterranean. Make your life easier by asking your fishmonger to clean and butterfly the sardines for you.

  • Yield: 4 Servings

Ingredients

  • 8 sardines, cleaned and butterflied
For the Sourdough Salsa
  • 2–3 thick slices of day-old sourdough bread (about 150 g once the crusts are removed)
  • 25 g currants
  • 1 tbsp sherry vinegar, plus extra for drizzling
  • 4 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for cooking and drizzling
  • 1 small shallot, finely chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 2 tbsp Lilliput capers, in brine, drained
  • 4 sprigs of mint, leaves only, roughly chopped
  • 1 lemon (finely grated zest)
  • 4 fillets of anchovies preserved in oil, drained and roughly chopped
  • ½ tsp flaked sea salt
  • ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
  • 25 g pine nuts, toasted
For the Tomato Salad
  • about 12 small heritage (or 2 large) tomatoes per person a mix of colours and shapes
  • 4 sprigs of oregano, leaves only
  • 4 sprigs of mint, leaves only
  • flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
How to Make It
  1. Remove any visible bones left in the butterflied sardines and set aside. Now make the sourdough breadcrumbs. Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3 and line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper. Blitz the bread roughly in a blender or food processor until you have coarse crumbs. Spread them out evenly on the baking sheet, and bake for 15 minutes until golden and crunchy. Move them around halfway through the cooking time to ensure they toast evenly. You want them very dry so they can absorb plenty of flavour later on. Set aside once ready and leave to cool.
  2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, soak the currants in the sherry vinegar for 10–15 minutes, until they’ve absorbed most of the liquid. Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil to a pan over a low heat, and heat the shallot and the garlic very gently. You want to warm them in the oil, but not to cook or soften them.
  3. In the large bowl combine the toasted breadcrumbs, the currants (and any vinegar that they didn’t soak up), capers, chopped mint, lemon zest, anchovies, salt and chilli flakes. Mix well, then add the warm shallots and garlic, the pine nuts and all the remaining olive oil. Stir until you have a wet, crunchy mixture. Cover and leave for up to 2 hours for the flavours to meld – no longer, or the mixture will become too soggy.
  4. o prepare the salad, slice the tomatoes in as many different ways as you can, creating a real mix of shapes, textures and colours – halve some, roughly chop others, slice a few thinly. If what you have looks beautiful now, it will look even more so on the plate. Add the oregano and mint, drizzle with a little olive oil, and add a few drops of vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.
  5. Cook the fish: preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7 and line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. In two batches, if necessary, lay the sardine fillets in the frying pan, skin-side down, and cook for a maximum of 3 minutes. The edges of the fish will begin to turn white, while the centre will still be uncooked – don’t worry, they’ll cook through thoroughly in the oven.
  6. When the fish have been seared in the pan, transfer them to the prepared baking sheet, skin-side up, and cover with half of the sourdough salsa. Pop into the oven to warm through for 2–3 minutes, then leave to rest for 5 minutes.
  7. Arrange the tomato salad either on individual plates or on a large platter. Lay the sardines on top of the tomatoes, piling and layering them slightly over each other, and sprinkle over the remaining sourdough salsa.
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