STUFFED SARDINES

(Sarde a Beccafico)

Serves 6

24 fresh sardines (about 1.25 kg/2½ lb)

125 g/4 oz dried breadcrumbs

6 tablespoons olive oil

35 g/1½ oz pine nuts

25 bay leaves

Juice of 1 lemon

50 g/2 oz currants, plumped in hot water for 5 minutes

2 tablespoons minced parsley

8 anchovy fillets

1 teaspoon olive oil

Juice of 1 orange

1 tablespoon sugar

The sardines must be cleaned and prepared, either by an obliging fishmonger or by oneself, in what the Sicilians call the linguetta fashion. Cut off the head and the fins (but not the tail), remove the scales, slit the belly, and remove the guts. Then, holding the fish, belly upward, between the palms of your hands, run your thumb along the backbone so that the fish opens like a book, the two halves remaining joined along the dorsal ridge. Remove the backbone, breaking it off just before you get to the tail.

To prepare the filling, brown the breadcrumbs in 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy frying pan over a very low flame, stirring constantly. Remove from the fire, and add the pine nuts, currants, and parsley. Dissolve the anchovies in 1 teaspoon of oil over steam, and add them to the breadcrumbs. Mix thoroughly and moisten with another 2 tablespoons of oil.

Open a sardine and, placing it skin side down, put a heaped teaspoon of filling on it and roll it up toward the tail. Place in a lightly oiled shallow 30 cm/12 inch baking dish, so that the tail is sticking up in the air. Repeat this with the rest of the sardines, alternating them with bay leaves as if they were on a skewer, and arranging them in neat rows so that they have no room to unroll.

Sprinkle the sardines with the lemon juice, orange juice, sugar, and with 2 tablespoons of oil. Bake in a 180C/350F/gas mark 4 oven for about 10 minutes. Serve cold.

Oranges and lemons and even tangerines go into another tornagusto, a very old Palermo recipe for artichokes in a sweet and sour sauce.