When I was in France last month, I came across something I’ve never seen anywhere before: a small shop that sold nothing but sardines. The shop, Penn Sardin, was on a cobblestoned street in the town of Douarnenez, on the westernmost tip of Brittany.
Penn Sardin sells about a hundred varieties of tinned sardines: Sardines in olive oil, in rapeseed oil, in tomato sauce, with green peppercorns, with chives, with lemon zest, with seaweed butter. Every sardine we sampled was intact, pristinely de- boned and full of flavor.
The Breton are slightly crazy when it comes to sardines. There are sardine festivals and books and blogs on the subject. Americans, though, are a little squeamish when it comes to these small, oily fish. Sardines — which like any oily fish, are very perishable — are a hard sell on a restaurant menu. And sardines are usually the last thing left over in any American kitchen pantry, next to the tarragon mustard and the caperberries.
This is a shame because sardines are not only delicious, but they’re a good source of heart-disease reducing Omega-3 fatty acids. And eating them is not only healthful but also eco-friendly. When I talked to Rick Moonen, the American chef who is the most visible exponent of environmentally conscious fish cookery, he recommended that diners who love fish and are concerned about the environment should eat lower down the food chain, i.e, anchovies, smelt and sardines.
I’ve written something that isn’t so much a recipe as vague directions for a quick snack: You toast a piece of bread, smear it with butter and drizzle it with sardine oil, lemon juice and a little sea salt. Pile sardines on top. The important thing about this little bite is the texture contrast between the crispy bread and the tender sardines. (Gabrielle Hamilton, the chef at Prune restaurant in New York, features a bar snack of sardines on a Triscuit with mustard. Same principle.)
Sardines are one of those foods that goes just as well with red or white wine. This snack is equally delicious with a white, minerally albariño or a red tempranillo.
Sardines on Toast
Serves 4 as a snack.
Ingredients
4 slices rusticco bread
2 tablespoons soft butter
1 tin (about 4 ounces) good-quality deboned sardines, packed in olive oil
1/2 lemon
Coarse sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon finely diced red onion
Directions
Preheat broiler. Toast the bread until golden brown and crisp.
When the bread is still warm but not hot (you don’t want the butter to melt), butter each slice.
Top with the sardines (you can either neatly layer them on the toast or mash them up in a bowl and spread them).
Sprinkle with lemon juice, a little bit of the oil from the sardine can, the salt, pepper and onions.
Serve immediately.
(Note: My wife likes to add the additional, decadent touch of a squiggle of Japanese mayonnaise, usually made with cider vinegar or rice vinegar instead of distilled vinegar and available at Asian markets, on those toasts, which is delicious.)
