Oven-baked sardines with tomato and parsley! This is definitely a summery dish! Maybe we are not typically in summer anymore but the mood and the weather is certainly still summery. In this dish the freshness of sea is combined with the freshness of red tomatoes and aromatic herbs. Light, full of vitamins and low budget is ideal for a family lunch or dinner.
Sardines are a very common fish, very cheap and very tasty.This time of year are plenty and we can find a dish using them in every tavern and restaurant by the sea and not only. Mostly grilled are a unique pair to a glass of ouzo (or two or three…). Add a good company and you have a little taste of what Greek summer means.
Cooking fishes and other seafood are a whole culture to us. How can’t it be! Almost our whole country is surrounded by sea and it is so small that everyone has something to do with the sea somehow. We bake, fry, grill or cook them in many ways. Soup, with tomato sauce, with lemon, with pasta and much more. There is a lot of “material” for my blog as you understand!
This way of cooking is suitable for almost any kind of fish. My mother for example used to cook bonito in slices this way. I preferred sardines for a lighter version (bonito is a bit “heavy” fish) and because sardines is my husband’s favorite. Cooking them in the oven with olive oil helps the fish to remain tender and juicy. The tomato gives flavor and a fresh sensation to the mouth. Oregano and parsley gives their aromas while garlic tickles your tongue with its sweetish nutty taste.
The only difficult and time consuming thing in this recipe is to fillet the fishes. It takes patience! Of course in order to save time you can find sardines already fillet in the super market or maybe your fishmonger can do that for you.
Just salt fishes both sides, arrange them to the baking dish, sprinkle with garlic,
put the slices of the tomato over and season with dried oregano and parsley.
Add olive oil and bake for about 40 minutes. So easy and so tasteful!
Oven-baked sardines with tomato and parsley
(19 votes, average: 4.21 out of 5)
Loading...Ingredients
- 1 kg sardines
- 5-6 small tomatoes
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- parsley, chopped
- salt
Instructions
Remove the head, guts and scales from the fishes.
Using a sharp knife cut the belly and remove the main bone with your fingers.
Wash the fillets under running water.
Let them drain in a colander for half an hour.
Heat the oven at 180 °C.
Salt the fishes both sides.
Arrange the fillets to the baking dish (skin side up).
Sprinkle with garlic.
Slice the tomatoes and put them over the fish.
Sprinkle with oregano, parsley and a little more salt.
Add the olive oil.
Bake for about 40 minutes.
Notes
For a kilo of sardines you will need a big baking dish because the fillets should be in one layer. I show you the way to arrange them in a photo above.
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