There is a really famous Italian dish from Sicilia which I love, called sardine al beccafico, which is sardines split open and stuffed with breadcrumbs, olive oil and tomato, then rolled up and baked for five or six minutes. The story is that the little rolls with their tails sticking out look like the beccafico, a small, greedy bird who loves to eat figs, and so is considered to be a great judge of good food. I really wanted to have this dish on the menu, but it isn’t easy to serve in a way that is right for the restaurant. I knew I would have to take out all the small bones – it is very important for a London restaurant to sanitise fish. So we came up with this way of filleting the fish and then wrapping the fillets around little balls of stuffing, made of breadcrumbs, herbs, olive oil and Parmesan. I have to confess, though – and whisper this – that it breaks one of the fundamental rules of Italian cooking: never put cheese and fish together.
Because sardines are so generously fatty, we cut through the richness by serving them with a little salad of tomatoes (seasoned with salt and vinegar to bring out their acidity), some leaves, black olives and plenty of chives – a really big handful. I hate to use any herb just sprinkled on a dish for decoration; I use them for their texture and taste, and I really like the oniony flavour of chives, especially in this recipe.
Whenever we can, we use the fantastic sweet San Marzano tomatoes that come in from Italy, because they have thick flesh and very few seeds, so they absorb the vinegar well. And we use wild salad leaves, predominantly rocket but also red chard, mizuna and mustard – the more aromatic and peppery the salad, the better. Again, remember you are putting hot fish on to soft leaves, so you don’t want any leaves that are too delicate or they will ‘cook’ and wilt immediately. That is why we favour rocket so much, because it has real tenacity, and a lovely pepperiness.
8 small, vine-ripened tomatoes, blanched, skinned, cut into quarters and deseeded (see page 304)
10 tablespoons Giorgio’s vinaigrette (see page 51)
12 small or 8 large sardines
about 20 black olives, pitted and halved
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 handfuls of rocket
small bunch of chives, cut into short lengths
salt and pepper
For the stuffing:
2 slices of soft white bread, crusts cut off
a little milk
good handful of basil
good handful of flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
30g breadcrumbs
20g Parmesan, freshly grated
1 garlic clove, chopped
Well ahead, start making the stuffing: put the slices of bread into a bowl and pour over enough milk to wet them all the way through. Transfer to a fine sieve and leave to drain for 4 or 5 hours, but preferably overnight, until the bread is moist but not wet (this step isn’t essential, but it is best if you can do it).
Towards the end of the bread soaking time, sprinkle the tomatoes with 4 tablespoons of the vinaigrette and leave to marinate.
Put the basil and parsley into a food processor with the olive oil and whiz until finely chopped. Then add the breadcrumbs, soaked bread (first squeezing out any excess milk, if necessary), Parmesan and garlic. Pulse until all the ingredients come together into a paste. Taste for seasoning and add some pepper and salt if necessary (there will already be some saltiness from the Parmesan).
Under running water, scale the sardines and then open them out, leaving the heads attached. To do this, insert a sharp filleting knife at the tail end, next to the backbone, and cut upwards, until you reach the belly of the fish. Turn the sardine over, then cut in the same way to the same point on the other side of the bone. Starting at the tail end, take the backbone between your forefinger and thumb and run them along the length of the bone up to the head. Cut across the bone at the tail end and head end and the bone should lift out, leaving the fillets still attached at the opposite side, so you can open them out like a book. At the outside of each fillet, you will see a black area with some fine bones. Just take your knife under these parts, and remove them. Then, with a pair of tweezers, take out any pin bones that may have remained in the fillets.
Take a little of the stuffing and work it into a ball. Then place a filleted sardine on a board, put the stuffing inside, as close to the head as possible, and wrap the fillets around it. Smooth the stuffing that is still visible at the top and bottom, then secure with cocktail sticks.
Alternate the tomato and olives around the edge of 4 serving plates.
Cook the sardines in 2 batches. Heat half the olive oil in a large, non-stick frying pan. Season the sardines with a little salt and, when the oil is hot, put in half of them and brown on one side for about 1-2 minutes. Turn over and cook for 2 minutes on the other side. To make sure the stuffing is heated through, insert a sharp knife into the centre and then put the knife to your lips to check that it is hot. Remove the sardines and keep hot while you cook the remainder in the rest of the oil.
Take the cocktail sticks out of the sardines. Toss the rocket with 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette and put it in the middle of the serving plates. Place the sardines on top of the rocket, then sprinkle with the chives and spoon over the rest of the vinaigrette.
Carpione di pesce persico Escabeche of perch
Where I come from in Northern Italy, the local fish is all lake fish – especially perch – which we would cook and put under vinegar with vegetables, to bring to the table cold as part of the antipasti. The idea here is that you don’t completely cook the fish in the pan but finish it off in the oven, still in the vinegar mixture. We serve it hot, but you can also leave it to cool, cut it into smaller pieces and serve at room temperature, with more antipasti. If you do this, don’t reduce the juices at the end, as you will need enough to cover the fish completely. You can also serve this as a main course with some fregola (see page 166) – use 12 onions, double the quantities of carrots, white wine, vinegar, rosemary and leek, and choose fillets of fish around 200g. Then cook 4 tablespoons of fregola in plenty of salted water for 7-8 minutes, and sauté with some diced cucumber and tomato.
8 baby onions
1 carrot
about 3 tablespoons sunflower or vegetable oil
4 perch fillets or steaks, each about 80g
2 tablespoons white wine
5 tablespoons white wine vinegar
4 bay leaves
2 small sprigs of rosemary
white part of 1 small leek
4 juniper berries
4 black peppercorns
small handful of flat-leaf parsley
3 tablespoons olive oil
salt