Sardine parcels (after Antonio Carlucci’s recipe)

First get a hold of some sardines, unfortunately there was no fresh to be had at the market, but in such a case I am quite willing to get them out of the deep freeze, they have been frozen in prime condition with everything intact.

Next defrost (I did this in a bowl of cold water over a period of about an hour) these were quite large ones and as there was  7 to the kilo, I decided to do them all, even though only needing 6 ( a stroke of luck as I will reveal later).When they are defrosted de-scale them, these come off easily by using your thumb, rubbing it under the scales and pushing from tail to head. But do it under water or you will be finding scales for the next month in places that you never thought that they could reach.

Now slit them down the belly from gills to vent, removing the entrails with your thumb, snip off all of the fins. Then it’s off with their head as the queen said to Alice (and the tails), I use kitchen scissors for this, now place on a board belly side down and with the heel of the hand push down firmly you will feel the bones loosen from the flesh, turn over and carefully pull out the backbone, with luck all of the connecting rib bones will come away with it. Any remaining can be picked out with either finger nails or fish tweezers. Lay the filets on the board skin side down and trim the bits off that are either don’t look nice or are inedible (belly flaps and any remaining bones) wash them under running water pat dry, salt and pepper them set aside while you make the filling.

 

 

The filling

A mixture of fresh herbs, I used basil, rosemary, thyme, oregano and sage.

1 clove of garlic

1 shallot (or small onion)

Green of some spring onions (Antonio says chives but I had none)

A few walnuts

Olive oil

Salt and pepper.

 

Chop the herbs, spring onion greens and shallot, crush the garlic and mix well together chop the walnuts and add to the mixture mix in some olive oil to a course paste, season with salt and pepper.

 

 

Spread this mixture on one side of the filets and fold over and place in an ovenproof form.

 

To finish

Olive oil

Zest of 1 lemon (Bio)

 

1 tsp of pine kernels

Salt and pepper.

Panko crumbs pounded in a pestle and mortar.

 

Sprinkle with olive oil, lemon zest and pine kernels, a bit of ground seas salt and black pepper, sprinkle with the bread crumbs and into a pre-heated oven at 200°C for about 10 minutes. That’s it smashing, a great starter or as in this case as part of a Anti Pasti