Oven-baked marinated sardines with chermoula sauce
Soft, juicy, fresh sardines with a spicy, herby sauce
Published originally on my blog on 29 September 2015
I’ve said it so many times before on this blog; I love eating fish. I could probably eat fresh fish every day if I could.
I particularly enjoy oily fish like mackerel, herring and sardines because of their strong, almost meaty flavor and the fact that they can stand up to bold flavors. They’re not easily overpowered by spicy and piquant ingredients like chilli or garlic —two ingredients that are always present in my kitchen and seem to find their way in many of my dishes— but rather shine even more because of them.
I used to prepare sardines on the grill or the barbecue, very simply, the classic Greek way with olive oil, lemon juice and fresh or dried herbs, but then I realized there’s so much more I can do with them. A shining example is this dish in which the sardines are marinated in half of a chermoula sauce, are then baked in the oven and served with more of the raw chermoula on top.
Chermoula is a Moroccan - North-African spicy, but not too spicy, herb sauce that is traditionally paired with fish. It’s a fresh and pungent sauce that can be used to marinate proteins but can also be served raw as a condiment on top of fish, meat or vegetables, or even as a dressing for salads.
The basic ingredients of chermoula are fresh parsley and coriander, cumin, paprika, ground chillies, lemon, olive oil and garlic, and there are chunky and smooth like paste versions of it. This one is a chunky one and works best with small fish like sardines. I always prefer the small ones, those we get in Greece that are two-bite-sized, and not the large ones that you need to debone in order to eat. The small ones are so much more flavorful and easy to enjoy. You just remove the head and tail and eat the whole thing.
The resulting dish is really special. You get the true, fresh flavor of the sardine with kicks of chilli and garlic, with the aroma of cumin and parsley wafting through your nostrils, tantalizing you, while the zing of the lemon lifts and brightens up the flavors. The lusciousness of the olive oil meets the healthy fat of the plump, glistening sardines with their soft and juicy flesh, and topped with some more fresh chermoula to accentuate the existing flavors, this becomes a heady, verging on addictive dish.
Oven baked marinated sardines with chermoula sauce
Even though traditionally chermoula includes fresh coriander, I have strong feelings against it, so I use only parsley. If you don’t have the same aversion to fresh coriander (you may know it as cilantro) as me, you may add a handful of it and halve the amount of parsley.
As I already said, I prefer eating small sardines as I find them more flavorful and easy to eat, but larger ones can certainly be used in this dish. They’ll just a take a little more time to cook.
Pair the fish with couscous, quinoa, bulgur or rice. Alternatively, serve with a big salad and fresh crusty bread to sop up all the delicious juices.
