A very attractive snack with French origins
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 2,5 € pp)
- salt
- 200 g fresh sardine filets
- 1 garlic clove
- 100 g ricotta cheese
- 50 g EV sunflower oil
- 20 roasted hazelnuts
- 10 raisins
- drops of lemon
- black pepper
- fresh dill
- 1 red horn pepper
- freshly baked focaccia
The rillettes were initially a conservation method of meat and fish, used especially in the central France and also in the Pyrenees area. Nowadays the rillettes are an excellent spread for the bread, used vastly in Southwestern Europe. Today we will prepare the first ones of them, the sardines rillettes.
We start by making the necessary preparations. We mince the garlic and the sardine filets, we strain the ricotta cheese, discarting the liquid parts and we chop finely the hazelnuts and the raisins. If somebody considers the ricotta cheese too light, he can use mascarpone or Philadelphia cheese.
In a cold skillet we add the oil, the sardines and the garlic. We bring to heat and working at low temperature we gently fry them till golden. We remove them from the heat and we wait for the temperature to lower.
When the sardines are cold, we mix them with the cheese, the hazelnuts and the raisins, we add some salt and pepper and we correct the acidity with some lemon drops. We chop the dill, we mix and we leave the rillettes in the fridge for more than an hour.
We bake the focaccia and when cold but still freshly baked we spread with the rillettes, we pour on top small dice of red pepper and some chopped dill and we serve.
