It's Friday today. Most people will be looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend, but not me. I have a cold, I have to get up at 5:45 tomorrow morning to go to work, and I need to fit in a decent run. This doesn't really have any bearing on tonight's 15 minute meal, I just felt the need to vent a little bit. But anyway, in spite of everything I have to look forward to tomorrow (or perhaps because of - I sure as hell won't want to do any cooking then) I decided to make it a 15 minute meal Friday, and we had butterflied sardines and Tuscan bread salad on the menu.
It's another meal which you can trace back through the Jamie Oliver bibliography, or at least the salad part of it anyway. I remember making something very similar alongside a veggie lasagne which featured in 30 minute meals - and remember thinking it wasn't that great. Still, I've learned a thing or two in the last 10 and a half month so I should be better equipped to do it justice. Besides, it doesn't look like it should be a complex meal to cook, and if I can get my hands on some nice fresh sardines then I think this could be a good un.
I did indeed manage to get some good fish - a quick diversion on my way home took me the via the fishmongers and I got a bag full of sardines for the very un-princely sum of £1.90. Thankfully, unlike the previous sardine dish, these ones didn't need cooking in the griddle pan. Instead, they are done under the grill, sitting in a fragrant paste (I removed the fennel seeds at Lolz's request). The construction of the salad is actually a little odd - the basis is a dressing made from oil, vinegar, spring onion, garlic, anchovies, basil and nearly half a kilo of tomatoes. The result is more reminiscent of a salsa than a dressing. In this sits another 400g of tomatoes, more basil, roast peppers, chunks of toasted ciabatta and a bit of feta cheese.
It's all quite good, the sardines in their dressing with the crispy pancetta especially, but the more I ate of the salad, the more I thought it's dressing was too pungent with the basil and balsamic vinegar overpowering everything else. Halving the quantities of both would probably produce a better result.
Lolz gave the dish 8/10. Difficulty rating 1/10.
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