Baked sardines a beccafico with orange salad

Ingredients

For 1 serving

• Sardines180 g
• Breadcrumbs20 g
• Raisins8 g
• Pine nuts6 g
• Parsley5 g
• Orange1
• Fennel100 g
• Extra virgin olive oil10 g
• Bay leavesto taste
• Saltto taste
• Black pepperto taste

Contains: gluten, nuts, fish, sulphites,

In season: December – April

Method

1. Preheat a conventional oven to 180 °C. Clean the sardines: pull off the head, open the belly with your fingers, remove the guts and lift out the backbone, leaving them open like a book; rinse and pat dry.
2. Soak the raisins in warm water for 5 minutes and squeeze them. Chop the parsley and mix it with the breadcrumbs, raisins, pine nuts, half the oil, salt and pepper.
3. Spread the filling over the open sardines on the flesh side and roll them up from head to tail.
4. Arrange them snugly in an oiled baking dish, tails up, alternating with bay leaves.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, until the top is golden and the sardines are opaque.
6. Meanwhile peel the orange with a knife, removing all the pith, and slice it; wash the fennel, trim the base and slice it very thinly. Dress with the remaining oil, salt and pepper and serve with the sardines.