Baked Breaded Sardines
After many longs weeks stuck in NYC during what was a very hot summer (our North Fork escape has been under construction for the past year!), we were eager to find an affordable getaway where we could truly relax and enjoy great food and wine. We have traveled all over the world, and Italy truly is the ultimate vacation destination for food, wine, beautiful beaches and down to earth hospitality. And as I found out, it's also super easy to do on a budget!
We just returned from an amazing ten days in the Le Marche region, a gorgeous seaside province east of Tuscany famous for its fresh simple foods and big punchy wines. During our time there, we only stumbled upon tourists once! We stayed at the gorgeous Nido Sulle Colline for a week, and our house host treated us to many unforgettable meals - including one of my favorite appetizers, baked breaded sardines! For those of you that are averse to anchoives / sardines, then this recipe might not be for you, but I think you should give it a shot because this version is super tasty, nutrition dense and easy to whip up. I'm always looking for ways to incorporate more sardines in my life, but I'm not a huge fan of eating them straight from the can. When our host made this for us in Italy, she used fresh sardines which are abundant in Le Marche, but unfortunately I haven't been able to find them in NYC. For those of you that are lucky enough to have access to fresh sardines, then this recipe can easily be swapped for the fresh ones.
Serves: 2-4 people
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 can of lightly smoked sardines in olive oil
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 cup of John's breadcrumbs
- 1 handful of parsley chopped
- Olive oil
Instructions:
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
- Combine the parsley and breadcrumbs on a small plate
- Beat the egg in a separate small plate
- Open the can of sardines and carefully split the sardine in half, removing any bones
- Take each sardine half and dip into the egg batter (letting any extra egg fall off) and then coat both sides with the breadcrumbs. Put the breaded sardine half on the baking sheet
- Repeat until all sardines are breaded
- Drizzle a generous amount of olive oil over the tops of the sardines
- Bake for 7-9 minutes
- Gently flip over and bake for another 7-9 minutes until crispy on both sides
- Enjoy!
John's breadcrumbs and chopped parsley
Dipping the sardines in the egg batter
Coating the egg-covered sardine in the breadcrumb mixture
The finished product!
