by Hedonistin

Venetian Recipes: “sardee in saor”

“Sardee in saor” is an ancient and tasty dish, and in spite of its simplicity it has some of the main peculiarities of the Venetian cuisine. Initial of all, this is a salty and really tasty dish: despite the fact that the Venetian cuisine contains very famous cakes, like “fritoe”, just to name the most renowned a single, we can claim that the greatest-known dishes of the Venetian tradition are salty and characterised by a powerful taste.

The name itself “sardee in saor” tells us that this is a very tasty dish (“saor” is the Venetian term for “taste”, and paraphrasing the name of the dish we could call it “sardines immersed in flavour”), and certainly the fundamental ingredient of this dish, aside from fish, is onion, which is utilised to prepare the seasoning (i.e. the “saor”) of the sardines. It is for the use of this ingredient that “sardee in saor” very best represents the Venetian cuisine, which utilizes great deals of onions in numerous standard dishes, like the “figà alla venessiana” (Venetian liver), and the “bigoli in salsa” (thick spaghetti with sardines and onion sauce).

The reason why onion is significantly used in the Venetian cuisine is extremely easy to clarify: onion has the capacity of neutralizing the bacteria that causes food deterioration, and for this reason it has often played an crucial function in preserving food.

In Venice, a city of sailors, who may possibly continue to be at sea for long intervals, hence needing to preserve food, onion was notably beneficial. Last but not least, “sardee in saor” is a fish dish, and for this purpose it represents the maritime culture and the fishing tradition of the lagoon city.

Given that it is a standard dish, “sardee in saor” can be located in all the restaurants of the city, but as it is also quite effortless to cook, and you do not want a lot of components to prepare it, you can cook it also in your very own kitchen.

First of all, you require to know that the preparation of the dish is fairly fast, but it should not be eaten instantly: you require to wait couple of days, hence if you would like to cook “sardee in saor” for a special occasion, get your self organised in advance.

Here are the ingredients that you need to cook “sardee in saor”: 500 g fresh sardines (not too large), 500 g white onions, 1 glass vinegar, 1 teaspoon of sugar, white flour sort 00, olive oil. Begin by cleansing the fish: cut the head off, get rid of the insides, but not the bone, scale and rinse it, then dip every sardine in flour and fry them in oil, and be careful that you fry them on the two sides. Take the sardines out from the oil and lay them on some blotting paper. Add salt. Cut the onion and make it brown in oil, and add the vinegar and some water tiny by little. When they are almost carried out, you can add a teaspoon of sugar to give a sweet-and-sour taste.

If you like it you can add also some raisins and pine nuts, which softens the robust taste of onions (in the past these ingredients have been used only in winter to improve the calories in the dish). Now you can take a glass or ceramic platter, lay a layer of sardines, then a single of “saor” and so on until the components are over (the last layer ought to be made of onions). Now the dish is ready, but to taste it you need to have to let it rest in the fridge for at least 24 hours, but it would be much better to wait 5 days. But it is surely really worth waiting for!