Recipe: stuffed sardine rolls with almonds, fennel and lemon

SARDE A BECCAFICO A beccafico is a small songbird that used to be eaten by wealthy Sicilian nobles. This version, made with cheap sardines, emerged later.
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THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED [Serves 4]

• 8 fresh sardines
• 80 g breadcrumbs
• 35 g white raisins, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes, drained and finely chopped
• 30 g almonds, roughly chopped and lightly toasted
• 3 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp capers, finely chopped
• 1 small fennel bulb, finely chopped
• grated zest of 1 untreated lemon
• ½ bunch of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1 sprig of rosemary, finely chopped
• 25 g Parmesan cheese, grated
• a generous splash of extra virgin olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 bay leaves
• juice of ½ an orange
• 1 tsp honey

HOW TO MAKE IT

Fillet the sardines or ask your fishmonger to do it for you. Remove the scales, guts and head, and carefully remove the backbone so that the two fillets remain attached at the tail. Rinse the sardines briefly under cold water and pat them dry thoroughly.

Place the breadcrumbs, raisins, almonds, anchovies, capers, fennel, lemon zest, parsley, rosemary and Parmesan cheese in a bowl. Add a generous dash of olive oil and mix everything together well. Season with pepper and, if necessary, a little salt, as the anchovies and Parmesan are already quite savoury.

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Generously grease an ovenproof dish with olive oil.

Place a sardine, skin-side down, on the worktop. Spoon about a tablespoon of the filling onto the widest part of the fillet. Gently press the filling down and roll the sardine up as tightly as possible, starting from the head and working towards the tail. Make sure the tail remains pointing upwards.

Arrange the sardine rolls side by side in the oven dish. Spread any remaining filling around the rolls and tuck the bay leaves in between them.

Mix the orange juice with the honey and 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Drizzle this mixture over the sardines.

Place the dish in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until the sardines are cooked through and the filling is golden brown. Serve straight away, perhaps with some extra lemon and a dash of good-quality olive oil.

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