Born as a poor dish, the beccaficu sardines are now one of the most appetizing recipes of the island's cuisine. Here's how to prepare them
Beccaficu sardines are a recipe that is part of the Sicilian tradition, cooked mainly in the provinces of Messina and Palermo. They are a reworking of a very rich meat dish, served on the tables of Sicilian nobles: the beccafico is in fact a small bird with very tasty meats, which at the time was hunted and cooked. In popular tradition it was later replaced with sardines, a poor fish that was part of the diet of the poorest families. The ingredients that make up this recipe form a balance of flavors that allows you to serve this dish both as an appetizer and as a fish main course. Let's see how it is prepared.
The recipe for sardines in beccaficu
Ingredients for 4 people
750 g of sardines, 100 g of breadcrumbs, 50 g of sultanas, 50 g of pine nuts, 6 salted anchovies, parsley, bay leaf, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon juice.
Method
First, soak the sultanas in warm water. Eviscerate the sardines, opening them like a book, and eliminate the bones and heads. Rinse and pat them with a paper towel. Toast the breadcrumbs (except a spoon) in a little extra virgin olive oil. When it is browned, remove it from the heat and add the well drained and squeezed raisins, the pine nuts, the chopped parsley and the desalted and chopped anchovies. Mix and season with salt. Mix everything well stirring, and then spread a little of the mixture inside each sardine, making it adhere with a light pressure of the fingers. Then roll the sardine on itself (making sure that the filling does not come out) in a ring, so that the tail protrudes upwards. Cover a baking tray with parchment paper, lay the stuffed sardines on it, add the bay leaf, sprinkle them with a spoonful of breadcrumbs, drizzle them with the remaining olive oil and cook them in a preheated oven at 220 ° C for 15-20 minutes and, when cooked, season them with lemon juice and serve your very hot beccaficu sardines.
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