Sicilian cuisine includes many recipes for sardines layered and baked, often referred to as a crostata.
In one of Ruth Rogers and Rose Grey’s Cookbooks – River Café Two – they call their layered sardine recipe: Strati di sardine (from strata, a layer). Their recipe is with breadcrumbs, zest of 2 lemons, pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, chillies and parsley. In their recipe the sardines are not fried beforehand.
A CROSTATA DI SARDE
My recipe also has raisins and includes juice of a lemon and an orange and I call my layered sardines a Crostata di sarde. The stuffing is very similar to that of sarde a beccafico, but in this recipe there is no rolling of the sardines – much less arduous to prepare. A crostata is a tart and the sardines are topped with breadcrumbs; this forms a crust when baked (the word for crust in Italian is crosta).
There are plenty of sardines in Australia, they are wild-caught and mainly fished in WA near Fremantle, Hervey Bay in Queensland, and increasingly in South Australia – this makes them available for most of the year.
This crostata can also be eaten cold. You can see how when it is accompanied with a simple salad, it could be a fabulous light meal.
The recipe for Sarde a Beccafico is included below and the addition of nuts in this recipe is also encouraged.
This recipe is for 4 people.
pine nuts, 150g
bay leaves, fresh, 10
Begin with a layer of the breadcrumb mixture; add a splash of oil next a layer of sardines (not overlapping and skin side up) then a splash of juice.
 Bread shop in Palermo |
This recipe is inspired by my visit to Palermo
I recently saw an impressive exhibition at The Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane called 21st Century: Art in the First Decade (includes film, photography installations, sculpture, painting and drawing).
In a darkened room, I was mesmerised by a five-screen video installation about a perilous sea voyage. The passengers, worn and exhausted, were on a small, old boat, carrying only themselves. I hadn’t read the information tag, so I only recalled Australia’s asylum seekers and the tragic boat tragedies. I wondered about other lands. The small fishing boats and coastline resembled Sicily, and the refugees could be North African. The content was relevant to Sicily’s current situation on Lampedusa, an island in the Mediterranean Sea. I recognised the stairway of a Palermo hotel I had once stayed in.
This moving and relevant installation, called WESTERN UNION: Small Boats, was created by Isaac Julien, an English artist and filmmaker. Filmed in 35mm and transferred to video, it’s an allegorical account of the hazardous sea journeys of North African illegal immigrants who often wash up dead on Sicily’s shores.
I found this photo of me in the hotel where I stayed in Palermo. It has that amazing staircase that is also featured in the film. And although Julien’s installation left me feeling sad, I also contemplated the beauty and excitement of Palermo: the eclectic architecture, which reflects several ruling cultures (Norman, Arab. Baroque); the street markets held in long, maze-like, narrow alleys, the piercing shrills of the sellers and the extraordinary array of produce.
