Day 14 - Butterflied Sardines & Tuscan Bread Salad

This recipe was from the Jamie's 15 Minute Meals book, again I changed a few little things in the recipe and I have written it with theses changes. I thought this meal was delicious but Rikki didn't enjoy it as much as I did, due to the fact that the fish had bones (he's not a big fan of fish with bones at all). Despite this he did say he enjoyed the rest of the meal and would eat it again with a different fish :)

BUTTERFLIED SARDINES & TUSCAN BREAD SALAD

Serves: 2

Prep Time: 5 Minutes

Cooking Time: 15-20 Minutes

1 Pinch of Saffron

8 Spring Onions

Half a Red Chilli

Half a Bunch of Flat Leaf Parsley

2 Lemons

4 Fresh Sardines - Scaled & Butterflied

6 Rashers of Smoked Pancetta

Half of a Ciabatta Loaf

1 Clove of Garlic

4 Anchovy Fillets

3 tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar

Half a Bunch of Basil

600g of Mixed Tomatoes

200g of Jarred Roasted Red Pepper

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
• Put the saffron, trimmed spring onions, chilli, parsley, juice of 1 lemon, a tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt & pepper into the food processor (bowl blade) and whizz until it's a paste. Rub the paste onto an oven tray and lay the sardines skin side up. Between the sardines place the panchetta and put the tray in the oven for roughly 10 minutes.
• Cut the ciabatta into six 2cm thick slices and place onto a griddle pan until toasted on both sides. Into the processor put the peeled garlic, anchovies, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, the balsamic vinegar and about 150 - 200g of the tomatoes, trimmed spring onions and basil. Blitz into a dressing for the salad, season to taste and pour into a salad bowl.
• Tear up 4 of the toasted ciabatta into quarters and add to the salad bowl along with the peppers, tomatoes, remaining sliced spring onions and basil leaves, then give the Tuscan salad a toss.
• Serve the sardines on top of salad with lemon wedges and the remaining 2 toasted ciabatta slices.