Fish parmigiana

As we were walking to the car we realized that the other fish shop had just put on display 2 trays of fresh anchovies — cleaned and filleted — a rare sight in Malta! So we immediately made our way to buy them and with only € 6 we had just less than a kilo of this delicacy! Anchovies are very rich in vitamins and although not much popular in Malta they are extremely common in Italian dishes especially in Southern areas like Sicily and the Campania region.

[caption id=”attachment_328" align=”aligncenter” width=”500" caption=”Fresh Anchovies”]

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Here’s a recipe for you to try out!

Anchovy parmigiana

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 kg fresh anchovies, cleaned, filleted and opened
• 800g tomato sauce
• 2 eggs
• 100g grated parmesan cheese
• 200g mozzarella di bufala
• 100ml milk
• flour
• parsley, chopped
• frying oil
• salt & pepper

Prepare the batter by beating the eggs with the milk, salt and pepper. Lightly flour the fish and coat them with the egg mixture. Fry them in hot oil and put them to dry on absorbent paper. Then, take an ovenproof dish and cover with some of the tomato sauce and on top place a layer of the fried anchovies. Scatter some parmesan, chopped parsley and the mozzarella cubes. Dress with some tomato sauce and repeat the layers until you use up all the ingredients. Cook in a pre-heated oven of 200 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes. You can prepare a day in advance and its taste will be even better!

[caption id=”attachment_329" align=”aligncenter” width=”500" caption=”Parmigiana with fresh anchovies”]

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