Growing up, I never knew that there was such a thing as fresh sardines. In the Gulf of Mexico, seafood was plentiful but we never seemed to eat smaller fish. All the fishermen I knew threw the little guys back in.
That all changed for me after a holiday to Portugal. Fresh sardines were everywhere! In grocery stores, roadside dives, beach huts and even fancy restaurants. After that, I cooked them whenever the opportunity came up.
One summer, about 16 or 17 years ago, I was fangirling over Jamie Oliver’s second book, called either The Return of the Naked Chef or The Naked Chef Takes Off, depending on whether you have the US or UK release. I didn’t realize they were the same book so, of course, I have one of each.
We happened to be in the Channel Islands where sardines are readily available and super cheap. Not everyone in our group was keen on all the bones so Jamie’s grilled butterflied sardines sounded like a recipe everyone would like. It is fiddly to remove the backbones but it sure makes eating these beauties a breeze.
Here’s the funny thing. I was discussing this month’s “seafood with stuffing” Fish Friday Foodies challenge with both my husband and younger daughter and I asked them if they remembered these butterflied stuffed sardines from so long ago. They both did! And then they wanted to know why I hadn’t made them but maybe once since. I have no excuse but to say, I won’t leave it that long before the next time.
Butterflied Stuffed Sardines
This is the perfect dish for folks who love fresh sardines but hate dealing with the bones!
Ingredients
1/4 cup or 25g fresh bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 fine green onions, minced
1 small handful flat leaf parsley, minced
Zest 1 lemon – use a microplane for best results
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil, plus a little extra for pan-frying
6 large fresh sardines, scaled and gutted
To serve: lemon wedges and parsley
Method
Rinse your sardines with plenty of cool water and set them on some paper towels to dry.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together well in a bowl and set aside.
Cut the heads off of the sardines and discard. With one hand press each sardine open and use the other hand to work the spine free of the body. This is tricky to get started but once it’s free up near the top (where the head used to be) it comes out rather easily the rest of the way down.
You can remove the tails, if you'd like to, but I thought they were prettier with their tails so I snipped the backbones with scissors and left them the tails intact.
Give the sardines another rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Divide the stuffing between the sardines and use damp hands to pat it down.
Heat a non-stick pan with a small drizzle of olive oil over a medium flame. Cook the sardines for a few minutes on each side, until they are cooked through and the stuffing is golden. I put them skin side down first then carefully flipped them over. I also cooked them in two batches so as not to crowd the pan, which makes flipping carefully a challenge.
Plate them up with a few springs of parsley and some lemon wedges so everyone can add a squeeze, if desired.
Enjoy!
If you love fresh sardines, you might also enjoy my whole pan-fried sardines, another Fish Friday Foodie recipe.
As previously mentioned, this month’s theme is seafood with stuffing or, even, seafood stuffing. After all, stuffing is not just for turkeys! Many thanks to our host is Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out all the great recipes we are sharing today.
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