Sicilian-Style Sardines with Fennel, Orange, Pine Nuts and Raisins

Pan-Fried Sardines with Fennel and Orange (Sicilian Style) · Excerpt: Crisp-skinned sardine fillets on soft, buttery fennel with orange, golden raisins and toasted pine nuts. Cheap, quick and so good.

Sardines have a bit of a reputation, and I get it. But fresh sardine fillets are a completely different thing from the tinned ones, and they’re one of the cheapest fish you can buy. My fishmonger will butterfly them for me if I ask nicely, which takes care of the only fiddly part.

The flavours here come straight out of Sicily: sweet fennel cooked down until it’s soft, juicy orange, golden raisins and toasted pine nuts. The fish is rich and salty, the fennel is sweet and the orange cuts through it all. I lay the fillets out in a little star because it looks lovely, but you can just pile them on.

Serves: 2 as a main, 4 as a starter · Prep: 20 minutes · Cook: 25 minutes

Ingredients

For the fennel

• 2 fennel bulbs, fronds picked and kept for later
• 60 ml (3 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil
• 1 eschalot (French shallot), finely sliced
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 40 g (¼ cup) golden raisins or sultanas
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 orange
• 40 g (¼ cup) pine nuts
• A small handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• Sea salt and pepper

For the sardines

• 8–10 fresh sardines, butterflied (16–20 fillets)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• A squeeze of lemon

Method

1. Soak the raisins. Put the raisins in a small bowl with the vinegar and 2 tablespoons of warm water. Leave them to plump up while you get everything else ready.
2. Toast the pine nuts. Toast them in a dry frying pan over medium heat, shaking the pan, until golden. This takes 2–3 minutes, and they burn quickly, so stay close. Tip them onto a plate.
3. Cook the fennel. Halve the fennel bulbs, remove the core and slice them thinly. Warm the olive oil in a wide pan over medium-low heat. Add the fennel, eschalot and a good pinch of salt. Cover and cook gently for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the fennel is very soft and sweet. You don’t want any colour on it. Add the garlic for the last couple of minutes.
4. Prep the orange. While the fennel cooks, zest half the orange. Then cut off the peel and pith and slice out the segments over a bowl to catch the juice. Cut each segment into thirds.
5. Finish the fennel. Stir the raisins, their soaking liquid, the orange juice and the zest through the fennel. Let it bubble for a minute. Take it off the heat and fold through the orange pieces, pine nuts and parsley. Taste and season. It should be sweet, sour and savoury all at once.
6. Cook the sardines. Pat the fillets dry and season the skin with salt. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over high heat. Lay the fillets in skin-side down and press them flat for a few seconds. Cook for 1½–2 minutes until the skin is golden and crisp, then flip and cook for just 20 seconds more. They cook really fast.
7. Plate up. Spoon the fennel onto plates and arrange the sardines on top, skin side up. Scatter over the fennel fronds, add a squeeze of lemon and drizzle over a little olive oil.

Tips

• Really fresh sardines should have bright eyes, shiny skin and smell of the sea, not of fish. Cook them the day you buy them.
• If you have a kitchen blowtorch, you can skip the pan and torch the skin instead. It gives you the charred look in the photo.
• The fennel mixture is just as good at room temperature, so you can make it an hour ahead.