Grilled Sardines with Tomatoes and Lemon Thyme

Grilled sardines with tomatoes and lemon thyme

Nigel Slater's grilled sardines with tomatoes and lemon thyme recipe. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin for the Observer

Ask the fishmonger to butterfly the sardines for you. If not, do it yourself, but take your time. Split each little fish up the belly then snip out the backbone with a pair of scissors, opening the flesh up like a book as you go. It is fiddly, but much, much better than dealing with the pesky bones of finger-sized fish on your plate. Serves four as a light meal or starter.

butterflied sardines 8 
lemons juice of 2 
lemon thyme 8 sprigs
tomatoes 2, large vine
olive oil 4 tbsp
sherry vinegar 2 tbsp

Cut the sides, top and bottom from each tomato, so you are left with a square central core. Cut the flesh into fine dice, place in a bowl, pour in the olive oil, season, then add a few thyme leaves, finely chopped, and a few flowers if you have them. Chill in the refrigerator.

Squeeze the tomato core out into a small pan, then discard the pulp. Squeeze the lemon juice into the pan, pour in the vinegar, then add the whole thyme sprigs and stir them in with a little salt and black pepper. Bring the mixture to the boil, turn off the heat, cover with a lid and set aside to infuse for 15 minutes.

Check the sardines thoroughly for any stray bones, then place them, skin-side down, on a foil-lined tray or grill pan. The foil will save washing up. Spoon some of the infused tomato juices over the sardines then grill them for five or six minutes until pale gold.

Divide the chilled tomato salsa between four plates. Place a grilled, butterflied sardine on top of each, then spoon over any of the cooking juices and serve.

Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk