Today we will prepare together a delicious and alternative second course, which can also be adapted as an elegant and tasty snack: anchovies a beccafico. It is a reinterpretation of sardines a beccafico, a typical Sicilian dish, which involves rolling the anchovies after having stuffed them with a filling of breadcrumbs, raisins and pine nuts. Let's see together what we need.
Video of the Recipe
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Identity Card of the Recipe
- 266 KCal Calories per serving
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Ingrediants
For the anchovies
- 5 g of brown sugar
- 20 g of sultanas
- q.s. of salt
- 1 sprig of parsley
- 20 g of pine nuts
- q.s. of pepper
- 50 g of breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoons (20 ml) of extra virgin olive oil
- grated zest and untreated lemon juice
- grated rind of untreated oranges
- 12 anchovy fillets
To decorate
- 150 g of untreated orange pulp
- 8-10 bay leaves
Materials Needed
- Knives for cleaning fish
- Food cutting board
- Small bowls to prepare the filling
- Soaking bowl
- Colander
- Grater for citrus peel
- Oven dish
- 6 sticks (long toothpicks)
- Pan for toasting breadcrumbs and pine nuts
Preparation
The original recipe involves rolling the anchovies on themselves, after having stuffed them with grated bread, pine nuts and raisins, and placing them in a baking pan, spacing them with a bay leaf. Customizing the recipe, I suggest making skewers with stuffed anchovies, skewered on a stick, and interspersed with slices of orange and bay leaves.
- Clean the anchovies well, removing the head and cutting them into the belly; remove the bone taking care not to break the two fillets. Then rinse them under running water.
- Heat a saucepan and, without adding oil or other condiments, pour in the breadcrumbs and pine nuts, then toast them over a fairly high heat for a few minutes.
- Once toasted, pour the breadcrumbs and pine nuts into a small bowl, season with salt and pepper, add the chopped parsley and the grated orange and lemon zest. Mix well adding 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and the juice of half a lemon.
The right idea
Lemon juice is essential to limit the amount of oil in the filling: in fact, if we did not add lemon juice, the amount of liquid should be equalized with the oil, making the dish very heavy and caloric.- At this point, spread the anchovies on a cutting board and distribute a part of the filling on each of them (it is advisable to start from the head part): roll them up creating a sort of roll, leaving the tail facing outwards (it is advisable to refer to the video).
- Cut an orange into ½ cm thick slices, and then into wedges: the orange will be used to build the skewer of stuffed anchovies.
- At this point, make the skewer: in each long stick, insert a slice of orange, a bay leaf, a stuffed anchovy and then another slice of orange, a bay leaf, another anchovy and finish with the orange. Proceed in this way with 5 other sticks.
- Spread a part of the leftover filling in the bottom of a pan, then place the anchovy skewers and cover with the remaining filling. Before baking, sprinkle with brown sugar which will caramelize during cooking.
- Serve the freshly baked skewers with slices of orange and lemon.
Alice's comment - PersonalCooker
Here they are: our skewers of anchovy a beccafico are ready. I did not tell you the origin of this curious name! The term "beccafico" was used in the past to indicate a small bird that was captured and locked up in a cage, to be fattened with millet and baked in the oven. Here, the anchovies a beccafico , in their curious form, they are a little reminiscent of that of the bird's beak.Nutritional values and Health Comment on the recipe
The anchovies with beccafico are a dish with a high carbohydrate content. Being a dish based on the association of breaded fish with fruit, anchovies with beccafico contain a considerable amount of energy deriving from carbohydrates, an aspect that (in itself) should constrain the portions. D "on the other hand, to consume them more freely, it would be sufficient to give up fruit at the end of the meal and a part of the bread to accompany it; by doing so, it is also possible to reach portions of anchovy al beccafico equal to or greater than 200g (530kcal).
