Tinned sardine recipes
Tins can be reach-fors when you're working from home, on a walk, or with your feet-up, flaked out at the end of the day. These recipe suggestions cleave to all of that - ie. they're quick.
Spicy sardines in a ramekin
Put 1/3 of a red pepper, cut into large dice, 1/4 onion, cut into chunks, and two bruised garlic cloves into a ramekin. Place the sardines on top and drizzle with a little of the spicy olive oil, season with salt and pepper, roast for 20/25 minutes on 180 or until the garlic, onion and pepper softens and the sardine skins crisp up. You can add some grated Parmesan 5 minutes before removing from the oven. For a variation, try lining the base of the ramekin with croutons first.
Sardines with Maggi sauce
Sardines in tomato with Maggi sauce, fried onions, black pepper and egg. Heat some olive oil on a medium high heat, stir fry the sliced onions until they get some colour, add the sardines in tomato, a dash or two of Maggi sauce (or fish or soy sauce), and lots of black pepper, crack an egg in and scramble it with the sardine mixture. You can serve over white rice or with a toasted banh mi or baguette. You could also fry the egg instead and serve it on top.
Sardinillas with Avocado | Radio 4
This is one of the tapas I prepared on Radio 4’s The Food Programme. First make the avocado cream. In a food processor blend two avocados, half an onion, the juice of one lime and salt to taste. Spoon the avocado cream over thin slices of toasted bread and place a small sardine on top. Drizzle over Espinaler salsa or Tabasco for a tangy kick. Recipe by Patrick Martinez.
Sardine, tomato and chickpea curry
Cook out two cloves of minced garlic in lots of olive oil (add the oil from the sardines later too), add some cherry tomatoes and a can of chickpeas, your tinned sardines and sprinkle paprika over to finish.
Sardine sandwich Singapore style
Mash sardines in tomato together with lime juice, finely chopped red chilli, thinly sliced shallots and cucumber - all to taste - and sandwich between two slices of buttered bread.
Sardine, spring onion and boiled egg spread
Thinly slice two boiled eggs and two spring onions to the same width - add mayonnaise if you like - smash into a paste with a tin of sardines and their oil, and spread on thickly buttered sourdough.
Sardine burger
Slice a brioche bun in two and toast. Butter the cut sides. Add 1 or two slices of mature cheddar. Next the sardines. The ones in spiced olive oil worked well. Either heated or straight from the tin. If you decide to heat them, pan fry them on a medium heat – two minutes on each side – before loading them onto the cheese. Top with slices of gherkin, two thick slices of tomato, slices of onion and mayo. Season with salt and pepper.
Sardine and broccoli pasta
Place broccoli florets in a roasting dish, sprinkle pine nuts over, drizzle the olive oil from the sardines on top season with salt and pepper and roast for 10-15 minutes on high. Meanwhile parboil the pasta then toss with the broccoli and pine nuts, nestle the sardines in amongst the broccoli and return to the oven for a further 10-15 minutes or until the pasta’s done.
Sardine, chorizo and Burrata
Dice an onion, bell pepper and courgette and roast in the oven with a splash of olive oil and seasoning. Meanwhile, pan-fry chorizo rounds in a tbsp of oil until they begin to caramelise. Lay them over the vegetables after they’ve softened and started to caramelise too. Top with slices of Burrata, then lay the sardines in tomato on top.
Sardine and rocket salad
Dice half a cucumber, slice 1/2 red onion into crescents, toss with rocket leaves. Dress the salad in a lemony vinaigrette. Lay sardines on top. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and season with salt and pepper.
Sardines and avocado on toast
Toast two slices of bread. Mash avocado on one and sardines on the other. Season with salt and plenty of black pepper.
Sardines and red cabbage on toast
Mash sardines on toast and top with shredded, pickled red cabbage.
Sardine Pizza
Ingredients for the topping: tomato passata, ribbons of courgette, smoked sardines, sliced mozzarella, a tbsp of capers, olive oil, salt & pepper, torn basil leaves. For the pizza dough: 7g of fast action yeast, 400g of plain flour, 200ml of water, 1 tbsp of olive oil, a good pinch of salt.
Sardines and beans
Heat shallots and garlic in the oil from the tin. Slow and low heat. Then add tomatoes, then butter beans and smoked paprika. Lastly, add the fish and mix it in and warm through. Recipe by Andrew.
Sardines with toasted nuts and seeds
Toast pumpkin seeds, pine nuts and walnuts. Remove a layer of sardines. Sprinkle the nuts and seeds over the remaining sardines. Top up with more olive oil.
Pasta con le sarde
A version of the Sicilian classic by Food Wishes - cited by a Borough Market goer as their go-to tinned sardine recipe. Mash up a tin or two of sardines and drizzle with olive oil, season and reserve. Toast some breadcrumbs in olive oil and reserve. Grind a few saffron threads in a pestle and small mortar and fill the mortar with white wine and reserve. Cook pasta in salted water. Meanwhile sweat down a diced fennel bulb (reserve some fronds for later to garnish) and onion, add a pinch of salt. Once the fennel and onion has softened but not browned, add a puréed garlic clove, some golden raisins and an anchovy fillet. Add the white wine and saffron mixture and cook off the alcohol. Add a ladleful of pasta water and simmer. Add pine nuts and chilli flakes and continue simmering. When the sauce is the consistency that you want, add the sardines and then stir the sauce through the pasta. Sprinkle over the toasted breadcrumbs. Garnish with fennel fronds.
Sardines in tomato piperade
Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add a handful of green beans, topped and tailed. Cook for 4 minutes or until al dente. Meanwhile, in a frying pan over a medium heat, start softening down one onion, sliced, in 2 tbsps of olive oil. After 2 minutes add one red sweet pepper cut into pound coin-sized dice. Continue to sauté and soften - add more oil if you need it and one clove of finely sliced garlic. Let all the flavours infuse, and season with salt and pepper. Add drained and dried green beans and a tin of sardines in tomato, heat through and sprinkle with paprika.
Sambal sardine
From Malaysia. To make the sambal sauce, take 10-15 chillies (de-seed or leave the seeds in depending how spicy you’d like the sauce), one big onion sliced or blended, 2 cloves of garlic, crushed, 2 tbsp of shrimp paste and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Blend it all together, adding some water, cook down until the oil comes to the surface and the sauce turns dark red, add salt to taste, then in with the sardines in tomato and cook for a little while. Serve with Thai jasmine rice top with a fried egg.
Sardine Migas
Migas de pastor or Shepherd’s breadcrumbs is the healthy breakfast shepherds traditionally ate when migrating their flocks in Spain. Sauté 150g lardons over a medium high heat in olive oil until they brown, add two cloves of chopped garlic and turn down the heat. Remove and set aside. Add a large red and green pepper, diced and sauté in olive oil for five-seven minutes or until they just start to char, blister and soften. Set aside with the lardons. Cut four slices of stale bread into crouton-sized chunks, sprinkle with water. Brown the migas in the oil the lardons and peppers have been cooked in. Drizzle over the oil from the tin if you like. Toast for five or so minutes, stirring all the time, drizzle over a glug or two of olive oil. Add peppers, lardons, 1 tsp of smoked paprika, and season with salt and pepper. The sardines go in last. Garnish with some chopped parsley.
Sardine and tomato frittata
Pre-heat oven to 150c and turn on the grill. Slice the baby tomatoes in half, drizzle with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast at 150c for twelve minutes until softened. Beat the six eggs, season with salt and pepper. Melt the butter on a medium heat in an ovenproof frying pan. Add chopped parsley and half a tin of lightly mashed sardines to the egg mixture. Pour into the pan. Add the roasted cherry tomato halves and cook. When the frittata starts to set round the edges place under the grill. Remove after three to five minutes. Sprinkle with smoked paprika and chopped parsley.