Please note that I do not claim this recipe as my own I have taken it from a wonderful book call River Cafe Cook book 2; see page 218/9 the authors Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers. I was so taken by the name of this recipe that I had to try it and I now pass it on to you.

Strati di sardine/Layered sardine sandwich

For 6 The following quantity of sardines will give you six fillets per portion; you might want to do eight fillets per person for a main course.

18 large very fresh sardines
olive oil 150 g (5 oz) breadcrumbs
grated zest of 2 lemons
200 g (7 oz) pine nuts
3 small dried red chillies, crumbled
i bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked from their stalks, finely chopped
Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 lemons, thickly sliced

Preheat the oven to 200° C/400°F/Gas 6.

First scale the sardines, then slit the stomach with your knife and remove the guts. Cut the head off, following the angle of the gills. Make an incision with your knife, cutting in towards the backbone, and along the spine of the fish, carefully cutting the fillet away from the bone. Repeat on the other side. Sardines have alot of very fine bones which are atrached to the backbone. Trim any arge bones that remain on the fillets.

Brush a baking try with olive oil and lay three of the fillets skin side down next to each other. Sprinkle with some of the breadcrumbs, lemon zest, pine nuts, dried chilli, parsley, salt and perpper. Then lay another three fillets directly over the top, skin side up. Sprinkle with more breadcrumbs, lemonzest,dried chilli, parsley, pine nuts, salt and pepper. This is one portion. Repeat this process until you have six sandwiches.

Drizzle the sandwiches lightly with olive oil and bake in the preheated oven for about 6-8 minutes. Serve with lemon slices.