The sweet and sour sardines are a simple, quick, and tasty main course, but they are also excellent as an appetizer. For this recipe, I chose to use fresh, pre-cleaned fillets, ready to cook. The sardines are cooked in a pan with garlic, wine, vinegar, and sugar, giving them this delicious sweet and sour flavor. Sardines are a type of blue fish (subject to anisakis like anchovies, cod, mackerel), excellent from a nutritional point of view, because they are rich in fatty acids great for combating cholesterol and protecting the heart. Try other sweet and sour recipes by clicking here.
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 2 people
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 8 sardines (fillets, pre-cleaned)
- 2 tsps granulated sugar
- 1 clove garlic
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste white wine vinegar
- to taste dry white wine
- to taste parsley
- to taste fine salt
- to taste black pepper
Tools
- Cutting board
- Knife
- Paper towel
- Pan
Steps
To prepare the sweet and sour sardines…
Take the sardine fillets, already head and gut-free. Remove any remaining scales by scraping with the knife blade or a fish scaler on the skin of each sardine.
Rinse the sardine fillets under cold running water and gently pat them dry with a paper towel.
In a pan, pour the extra virgin olive oil and brown a garlic clove, peeled and halved.
When the garlic is golden, remove it and lay the sardines skin-side down, cooking them on low heat for a few minutes, turning them gently not to break the fillets.
Deglaze the sardine fillets with the dry white wine and white wine vinegar, add the granulated sugar, salt, pepper, and let evaporate.
When the sardines are almost dry, but not completely, turn off the stove. Serve the sardines with the remaining cooking sauce and a sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley.
