Italian · Venice · appetizer

Sarde in Saor

Name: Sarde in Saor
Prep time: 59 min
Total time: 24 h 59 min
Cuisine: Italian · Venice
Ingredients: sardines — 800 g; all-purpose flour — 80 g; sunflower oil — 552 g; white onions — 800 g; extra virgin olive oil — 110 g; white wine vinegar — 250 g; sultanas — 60 g; pine nuts — 50 g; bay leaf — 2 g; caster sugar — 4 g; salt — 10 g; freshly ground black pepper — 5 g

Sarde in Saor reads umami 6.3, marine & briny 6.1 and salinity 5.8 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Italian · Venice appetizer, about 24 hr 59 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

Umami & Savory — 7.7 / 10
Sweet & Fruity — 5.6 / 10
Sour & Bright — 5.2 / 10
Bitter & Earthy — 1.7 / 10
Rich & Fat — 6.5 / 10
Aromatic & Spice — 2.3 / 10

The measured notes (of 18)

Umami 6.3 · Marine & Briny 6.1 · Salinity 5.8 · Richness 5.3 · Sweetness 4.9 · Sourness 4.8 · Nutty 4.0 · Fruity 2.4 · Funk & Ferment 2.0 · Allium 1.9 · Floral 1.5 · Warm Spice 1.5 · Bitterness 1.5 · Citrus 1.3 · Earthy 1.2 · Herbaceous 1.1 · Heat 0.6

What's in it (12)

sardines — 800 g
all-purpose flour — 80 g
sunflower oil — 552 g
white onions — 800 g
extra virgin olive oil — 110 g
white wine vinegar — 250 g
sultanas — 60 g
pine nuts — 50 g
bay leaf — 2 g
caster sugar — 4 g
salt — 10 g
freshly ground black pepper — 5 g

Time & effort: about 24 hr 59 min (59 min active) · effort: medium

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 134.4 kcal, 9.9 g protein, 5.7 g fat, 8.5 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (6 steps)

Saor is Venice's sailors' preservation method, and the raisins and pine nuts came home with the galleys from the Levant. It is not a quick dish: it needs two days in the cold before it is worth eating.
Dry the sardines very well, dust them in the flour and shake the excess off. Heat the sunflower oil to 180 C and fry them in batches for 2 minutes a side, until crisp and pale gold. Drain on paper and season with half the salt.
Pour the frying oil away. In a wide pan, cook the sliced onions in the olive oil over low heat, covered, for 25 to 30 minutes. They must become completely soft and translucent without colouring; browned onions turn the finished saor muddy and sweetish in the wrong way.
Add the vinegar, sugar, bay, the remaining salt and the pepper and simmer uncovered for 8 to 10 minutes, until the sharpest edge of the vinegar has blown off and the onions are slack in a syrupy liquid. Taste: it should still be forthrightly sour.
Layer in a deep dish: a spoonful of onions, then a single layer of sardines, then more onions, scattering the sultanas and pine nuts as you go, and finish with a layer of onions so no fish is exposed. Pour any remaining liquid over.
Cover and refrigerate at least 24 hours, and preferably 48. The vinegar softens the small bones to nothing and the sardines take on the sweet-sour onion. Bring it back to room temperature before serving with white polenta or plain bread; eaten cold from the fridge, the olive oil is dull and set.

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Spicy Tuna Donburi — Japanese
Pasta con le Sarde — Italian · Sicily
Chili Garlic Shrimp Stir-Fry — Chinese-American

Keep reading: what umami, marine & briny, salinity mean in the flavor lexicon · the world's cuisines, by flavor.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.