Marinated & preserved sardines

Sardinas escabechadas

These sardines go fabulously in a simple salad of fresh parsley with diced tomatoes, red onion and green olives. They also taste great on their own or inside crusty white bread rolls. Use this recipe with any type of oily fish you like, for example mullet, pilchards, garfish, herring, mackerel, tuna, salmon …

MAKES 500 G (1 LB 2 OZ)

500 g (1 lb 2 oz) fresh sardines, gutted, cleaned and scaled but left whole (see How to clean & prepare seafood)

250 ml (9 fl oz/1 cup) extra virgin olive oil

6 garlic cloves

2 bay leaves

10 whole black peppercorns

4 rosemary or oregano flower sprigs (½ cup, loosely packed)

2 teaspoons smoked paprika

80 ml (2½ fl oz/ ¹/₃ cup) white wine

80 ml (2½ fl oz/ ¹/₃ cup) red wine vinegar

Pat the sardines dry with paper towel and lightly season with sea salt flakes on both sides. Put half of the olive oil into a heavy-based frying pan over medium–high heat and cook the sardines for 1 minute on each side. Remove with a slotted spoon and put the sardines in a single layer into the earthenware or glass dish you’ll be using to store the escabeche.

Add the rest of the oil to the hot pan then add the garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns and rosemary or oregano flowers and cook for 2–3 minutes, until the garlic just starts to crisp. Add the paprika, stir to combine and cook for 30 seconds. Add the wine and cook for another 1–2 minutes. Add the vinegar and bring back to the boil, then immediately pour over the sardines.

Allow to cool then put in the fridge overnight. Bring to room temperature to serve the next day.

Note

You can store this escabeche in the fridge for up to 1 week.