With summer come the best sardines: five ways to prepare them and the five essential tools for cooking them - Grand Goldman 2026

Although they can be found all year round, the warm seasons are the best time for catching sardines (from May to October), as that's when surface waters are warmer, plankton is more abundant, and the sardine overfeeds, fattens up, and accumulates a large amount of fat, which enhances its flavor and aroma. The sardine toasts typical of many coastal towns across Spain are famous, from Galicia and the entire Cantabrian coast area, to the skewers (threaded onto a brochette) of the Malaga coastline.

The sardine is a type of oily fish widely consumed in our country due to its numerous properties and affordable price, and it is closely related to anchovies and herring. It is a species of extraordinary commercial importance and so abundant in the Mediterranean that it gave its name to Sardinia (from the Latin designation sardinae). It is also known as parrocha in Asturias, parrotxa in the Basque Country, or panocha in Andalusia. It is usually sold, above all, fresh and canned.

The sardine can live up to ten years, although they reach sexual maturity in the summer of their first year of life. The maximum size is about 25 cm, the common size is between 15 and 20 cm at two or three years of age, and the minimum size allowed for capture is 11 cm. They feed mainly on plankton and on eggs or fish in their larval stage. Sardines form large schools of fish (called shoals) that move in unison and can reach great sizes. They organize this way as a form of defense.

As for their nutritional values, the contribution of Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids provided by one serving almost covers 100% of the recommended daily amount, and the same goes for their phosphorus content. Their iodine and magnesium content is also important. Sardines also provide fat-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin E and D, which promotes calcium absorption and its fixation to bone and regulates calcium levels in the blood.

For all these properties, and many others, it is advisable to include them in our diet, no matter how unpleasant their aroma may be when cooking them. Surely with some of the following proposals we offer you, you will find a way to prepare them that will convince you to consume them weekly.

Five sardine recipes and the five utensils to cook them

Pickled sardines (Sardinas en escabeche)

• Ingredients: Fresh sardines 500 g, Lemon 1, Garlic cloves 3, Extra virgin olive oil 100 ml, Cider vinegar 100 ml, Homemade fried tomato 2 tablespoons, Bay leaf 1, Fresh parsley a few sprigs, Red Tabasco 3 drops, Salt to taste.

• Preparation: We will start by washing the lemon and cutting it into thin slices, and these in turn in half. We peel the garlic cloves and chop them. In a bowl, we mix the cleaned sardines with the lemon slices. We place a frying pan over the heat and heat a tablespoon of olive oil, gently sauté the garlic without letting it brown. Then we add the rest of the oil, the vinegar, the fried tomato, the bay leaf, and the chopped parsley. We salt and add the three drops of Tabasco. We stir and let it boil for five minutes. We add the cleaned sardines and the lemon and cook everything together for 10 minutes. Before tasting, we keep the pot with all the pickled sardines in the refrigerator for a few hours so the flavors settle.

  ADVERTISEMENT

For this pickled sardine recipe to turn out perfect, a deep frying pan like this specific one from Ibili that we propose will come in very handy. It is made of aluminum with two non-stick layers and can be used on all types of stovetops, especially induction. Its diameter is 19 cm, but you can find other sizes. We've seen it on Amazon and its price is 33.10 euros.

Smoked sardines

• Ingredients: 6 cleaned sardines (12 fillets), coarse salt, sugar, ground ginger, olive oil, aromatic herbs, tomato water and gelatin sheets or agar agar, bread slices, 2 tomatoes, and extra virgin olive oil.

• Preparation: In a dish, we place a layer of coarse salt, add two tablespoons of sugar, and sprinkle with ground ginger. On this layer, we place the sardine fillets skin side up and let them cure for 6 hours. After that time, we take out the sardines, wash them under the tap, and dry them well. Then we leave them submerged in olive oil for an hour. The sardines could already be eaten like this, but to give them the smoked touch, we place them on a slate or a heat-resistant plate, place some sprigs of thyme, rosemary, or whichever herbs we like best, and set them on fire, cover them with a Pyrex dish or similar so the smoke doesn't escape, and let them smoke there for a few minutes. To prepare the tomato water gelatin, we need to have tomato water, which we will have made by blending some tomatoes, leaving the strained juice in the freezer, and slowly thawing the juice in the refrigerator. Then we will have separated the tomato water, which will be at the top of the jar as I showed you, using a syringe. We prepare the gelatin following the manufacturer's instructions, but substituting the water with tomato water. We will heat a small cup of tomato water in which we will dissolve the soaked gelatins, mixing them with the rest of the liquid and leaving it in the refrigerator for 2 hours until it sets. Then, with a fork, we grate the gelatin. We toast some slices of bread, skewer a smoked sardine on a brochette, and stick it into a piece of tomato that we place on one side of the toast. We fill the empty space with a good spoonful of tomato water and it's ready to serve.

  ADVERTISEMENT

If you liked the sardine smoking technique and want to try it at home, the best thing is to have a Pyrex casserole dish with a lid like the one we bring you. It's from Amazon and is made of borosilicate glass, offering high resistance to thermal shock. It is suitable for the oven, freezer, dishwasher, and microwave. It also doesn't retain flavors, so you can smoke sardines without worrying about leaving bad odors in this utensil; you can safely use it for any other recipe you want to cook in it.

Baked sardines

• Ingredients: Fresh sardines 1 kg, Lemon 2, Garlic cloves 2, Fresh parsley in beautiful sprigs 4, Ground black pepper, Extra virgin olive oil, Coarse salt.

• Preparation: Preheat the oven to 200ºC and prepare a baking dish or tray by greasing it with a little oil. Place a light bed of coarse salt. Wash a good bunch of parsley, chop the garlic cloves, and squeeze the juice from one of the lemons. Clean the sardines by removing the heads, bones, and gently washing the skin to remove the scales. You can also buy them already cleaned to save that step, or we could cook them whole. I prefer to take them out of the oven ready to devour, as it's not difficult to prevent them from drying out. Place them open on the tray, season with salt and pepper, and season with the chopped garlic. Drizzle with the lemon juice and add plenty of chopped parsley. Cut the other lemon into half-moons and place a couple of pieces on each fish. Close and drizzle with a splash of good olive oil. Bake for about 10-15 minutes, watching carefully so they are cooked just right, depending on their size. Serve directly, freshly made, with a bit more fresh parsley.

  ADVERTISEMENT

Although all ovens come with their own tray for roasting any ingredient, it is very practical to have some extra trays of another size to adapt to the quantities of food we are cooking. Our proposal is a set of three baking trays, which includes a small tray measuring 31x21x3.3cm, a medium tray measuring 38x27x5cm, and a large tray measuring 42x31.3x5cm. We've seen them on Amazon and the complete set costs 24.99 euros.

Sardines in vinegar

• Ingredients: 400 g of cleaned sardines, 1/2 l of white wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons of salt, extra virgin olive oil, 5 garlic cloves, and fresh chopped parsley.

• Preparation: First, we will clean the sardines. We will remove the head, guts, and central spine, as well as the one on the back. We wash them well to remove the scales. We put the sardines in a container and pour the vinegar mixed with the salt. Let them marinate for about 12 to 24 hours. Before serving, drain the sardines, lightly wash them in water, and dry them. Transfer to a serving dish and add garlic, parsley, and extra virgin olive oil.

  ADVERTISEMENT

Having a deep serving dish in the kitchen always comes in handy, from beating eggs for an omelet to mixing ingredients for a dough; it's a practical utensil we can get a lot of use out of. In this case, we can use it to let the sardines marinate to prepare this recipe. The one we propose is made of enamel and has a diameter of 22 cm. We like its "retro" feel and that it can also be used as a fruit bowl or salad bowl.

Sardines en papillote

• Ingredients: 1 kilo of fresh sardines, olive oil, lemon, parsley, oregano, ground garlic, pepper, salt.

• Preparation: We preheat the oven to 200º. We clean the sardines, remove the heads and the backbone, and leave them open. On the bottom of the baking tray, we spread a good piece of parchment paper, and on the paper, we place the sardines. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with lemon juice, and sprinkle with parsley, oregano, and ground garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and cover everything with another piece of parchment paper, sealing the edges to form a packet. Put it in the oven and let it cook for about 15 or 20 minutes.

  ADVERTISEMENT

The Papillot or papillote is a cooking technique that consists of cooking a food in a heat-resistant wrapper, such as aluminum foil or sulfurized paper. In this case, we propose a practical steam cooking pouch from the brand Lékue with a capacity for two people. We've seen it on Amazon and it costs 19.90 euros. With this technique, you'll be able to cook any ingredient without using fats and, in the case of sardines, without unpleasant odors escaping throughout the house.

Cover photo |