Baked sardines in a mediterranean tomato crust

Baked sardines recipe comes from the south of Italy, where sardines are a common fish. I learned this recipe from my father-in-law and he learned it from his mother, so it is a real traditional Italian recipe.

Sardines were considered a poor kind of fish in the past, and are called blue fish in Italy – the Italian pesce azzurro. It is actually a fish full of nutrients, tasty and very healthy. They are a little bit salty so in this recipe we are using many herbs to reduce the strenght of sardines’ flavor but keeping the delicious part.

RECIPE FORMAT

INGREDIENTS

Below is what you need to prepare your amazing baked sardines:

• 400 grams (2 cups) of sardines cleaned and headless
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons of oil
• 1 cup of bread crumbs or dry bread that you can grate
• chives
• oregano
• thyme
• parsley
• rosemary
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 lime

DIRECTIONS

1. Put the sardines in a bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice and let them rest while you prepare the dough for the crust
   
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 F)
3. Put tomatoes, every kind of herb present in the ingredients’ list, 2 peeled cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and bread crumbs in a food processor. If you use dry bread, break it into small pieces
   
4. Blend everything until the mixture is smooth but not too soft (it will takes around 2 minutes)
5. Put half of the mixture together with the sardines and mix well
6. Put a piece of parchment paper in a baking pan and anoint the paper well with 2 tablespoons of oil
   
7. Arrange the sardines on the bottom in a thick and compact way
8. Use the remaining half of mixture to cover the sardines and add a little bit of bread crumbs on top
   
9. Put in the oven and cook for about 25 minutes. Hint: check every 5 minutes, the dish will be ready when the crust will be golden and slightly crunch!
10. Enjoy your baked sardines and Buon Appetito from Easy Italian Cuisine!