Recipes
  • Meat and Poultry
  • Fish and Seafood
  • Vegetables
  • Snacks
  • Pasta
  • Sauces
  • Courses
  • Dish Types
  • Special Diet
  • Regional dishes
Meat and Poultry
Fish and Seafood
Vegetables
Snacks
Pasta
Sauces
Courses
Dish Types
Special Diet
Regional dishes
How to Cook
  • Meat and poultry
  • Fish and seafood
  • Vegetables
  • Traditional Italian
  • Pasta
  • Cakes and baking
  • Knife skills
  • Pickling
Meat and poultry
Fish and seafood
Vegetables
Traditional Italian
Pasta
Cakes and baking
Knife skills
Pickling
|

Sarde in saor

by Valeria Necchio
  1. Sarde in saor
Item 1 of 1
  • Antipasto
  • easy
  • 6
  • 30 minutes
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Not yet rated

Valeria's sarde in saor recipe is a classic Venetian dish, in which sardines are deep-fried then left to marinate with onions in a sweetened vinegar solution. Sprinkle over a few raisins and pine nuts to serve, if desired.

First published in 2018
discover more:
Related Recipes
Not feeling this? See related recipes.

Marinating fried foods – particularly fish – in vinegar, onions and other sweet and sour elements is an ancient practice in Venetian cuisine, which holds the name of saor (literally, ‘flavour’). Today, the practice has spread to shellfish and vegetables, yet the most classic and popular involve sarde – sardines.

Now a year-round presence on Venice’s restaurant menus, sarde in saor is traditionally prepared on the occasion of the Festa del Redentore on July 15th.

Each household has a preferred way of preparing this dish: with white wine or just vinegar; with a touch of cinnamon; with pine nuts and raisins. The recipe below is how we make sarde in saor at home. It’s also the version I’ve shared in my cookbook, Veneto.

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

  • 1kg whole sardines, gutted, scaled and heads removed
  • 40g of plain flour, sifted
  • sunflower oil, for frying
  • 1kg white onion, finely sliced
  • 160ml of white wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp caster sugar
  • fine sea salt
  • freshly ground black pepper
SAVE RECIPE

Method

1
Rinse the sardines under cold water then pat dry with kitchen paper. Place the flour in a large bowl, add the sardines and toss to dust evenly. Shake off any excess
2
Fill two-thirds of a medium, high-sided frying pan with sunflower oil. Place it over a medium-high heat and wait until it reaches 180°C
3
Slip in a batch of sardines (6–8, depending on size). Fry for a couple of minutes on each side, or until crisp outside and opaque inside. Drain and transfer to a plate covered with kitchen paper. Salt generously and repeat with the remaining sardines, working in batches
4
Discard the oil with the exception of a very thin film – just enough to coat the bottom of the frying pan. Set this back over a medium heat, add the onions and sweat gently until very soft, stirring often so they don’t brown
5
Next, whisk the vinegar with the sugar and pour it in. Reduce the liquid to about half its volume, remove from the heat, taste and season with salt and pepper
6
Arrange a layer of sardines in a large glass bowl. Cover with a layer of white onions and then repeat in layers until you have finished all the ingredients, finishing with onions. Pour any remaining cooking liquid on top. Leave to cool to room temperature before wrapping in cling film and setting in the fridge to marinate for 24 hours

Discover more about this region's cuisine:

Follow Great Italian Chefs

Discover more about this region's cuisine:

Discover more about this region's cuisine:

Follow Great Italian Chefs
First published in 2018

Discover more about this region's cuisine:

Valeria Necchio

Valeria Necchio is an Italian food writer and photographer with roots in the Venetian countryside.

Get in touch

Please sign in or register to send a comment to Great British Chefs.

You may also like

Load more

NAVIGATE

FOLLOW

SITES

© Great Italian Chefs 2024