← Nouns Cooking · Greek

Ingredients

• 1 kg Fresh sardines, scaled, gutted and heads removed
• 1 Onion, thinly sliced
• 2 Tomato, thinly sliced
• 3 cloves Garlic, thinly sliced
• 2 Lemon, 1 juiced, 1 thinly sliced
• 80 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp Dijon or Greek mustard
• 2 tsp Dried oregano
• 1 tbsp Capers, rinsed (optional)
• 3 tbsp Parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp Salt
• ½ tsp Black pepper

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan, 400°F). Rinse the sardines, pat them dry and season inside and out with salt and pepper.
2. Spread the onion and garlic over the base of a baking dish that holds the fish in one layer, and lay the tomato slices on top.
3. Arrange the sardines snugly over the vegetables and tuck the lemon slices between them.
4. Whisk the oil, lemon juice, mustard and oregano together and spoon it over the fish. Scatter over the capers, if using.
5. Bake for 20–25 min, until the skin is golden and the flesh lifts easily away from the backbone.
6. Sprinkle with parsley and serve hot or warm with bread to mop up the juices.

Tips

• Ask the fishmonger to clean the sardines for you; it saves a messy job.
• The bones of small sardines are soft enough to eat, but pull out the backbone of larger ones before serving to children.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Diane Kochilas Diane Kochilas OliveTomato