Budget and Health: Sardines the Mediterranean Way

As many people these days, i'm on a budget. It's no fun, but it's the way it is. Therefor, even if i would love to, i can't shop exclusively for organic food or fair trade brands, just because i can't afford it.
But that doesn't mean i want to compromise on quality or health, i'd rather be carefull with quantities.

Now eating fish is something we should all do about twice a week. But between the unresponsible fishing, that endangers red thuna for instance, or the mercury that you can find in the fishes, it's kind of complicated to know what to do.

Now from what i gathered, it's better to eat small fishes rather than the big ones, and some spieces are less threatened than others. One that matches those criteria is the sardine!
I like that when it comes to fishes, the "fat ones" are the healthy kinds, if only that could work for desserts too ;) It's packed with Omega 3, vitamines, coenzymes and all kinds of good stuff.

I brought back some canned sardines from my last trip in lisbon, and i decided to use them on a mediterranean classic: the pissaladière, i just gave it my own spin changing the pizza/bread dough to puff pastry and the anchovies to sardines. Nice, healthy and cheap.

Sardines Pissaladière

1 Pie

200gr Puff Pastry
2 Onions
2 Tomatoes
1 Tin Can of Oil Sardines
10-12 Black Olives
Olive Oil
Thym, Rosemary
Salt, Pepper

Peel your onions, cut them in half and slice them in half moons. In a big pan, pour about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, put it on a medium flame, and add the onions. Add salt at this point, so the onions give a bit of water away, which prevents them from coloring too much.

Wash and cut your tomatoes in cubes, and when the onions are translucents, add the tomatoes. Add about a teaspoon of thym and one of rosemary, aswell as a bit of pepper. This needs to bubble down for about 20 minutes, you want to have something consistent, almost like a paste. When it's done, let it cool a little and check for seasoning.

Preheat your oven to 180°C

Roll out your puff pastry, for a pie dish or a baking tray. Place the pastry on your tray and spread out your tomatoes and onions sauce. Place the sardines on top of that and spread the black olives around them, sprinkle a bit of olive oil and thym.

Put it in the oven for about 35 minutes, but check the puff pastry, it needs to get a light golden color. With some nice, fresh green salad, you have a sunny and healthy dish :)