Sardines, Parmesan & Olive Tapenade On Pide Recipe

"This was the first course (appertiser) of a cooking class I took with all the 3 courses derived from Australian Delicious Magazine. The times are estimated as we did 4 courses and were all helping out in the making of them and were cooking for 12. You could make the tapenade up to a week in advance and store in the fridge in a jar under a layer of oil. In this course the recipe calls for tinned sardines but we used fresh from a local producer (The Fremantle Sardine Company) and they were marinated in oil, herbs and a touch of chilli. DO NOT USE sardines in brine as they can be bland (a tip from the recipe and the magazine and re-inforced from the Chef giving the lesson). I love seafood but usually do not like olives and though I have tasted commercial tapenades and have not liked them I thoroughly enjoyed this dish."

Step by Step Method

Step 1

For the tapenade, blanch garlic cloves in boiling water for 2 minutes (this helps to reduce their pungency).

Step 2

Meanwhile, rinse the olive, capers and anchovies, then drain and pat dry with paper towel.

Step 3

Place the olives, capers and anchovies in a food processor with the garlic cloves and then pulse to form a coarse paste and now with the motor running drizzle in enough of the olive oil to make the tapenade glossy and supple and then add two good twists of black pepper from a pepper mill and then pulse again to combine.

Step 4

These proportions will give you a very olivey tapenade, so taste it and feel free to add more capers, garlic or anchovies if your palate demands it - I'm not a huge fan of olives but I loved this once the sardines and lemon juice were applied.

Step 5

You can store the tapenade in a small jar, under a layer of olive oil, in the fridge for up to 1 week.

Step 6

Drain the sardines, then split each fish into 2 shiny fillets, you can remove the backbone if you don't like the crunchiness (don't think it is really worth it), set the sardines aside, you may also wish to remove the head if your sardines come complete.

Step 7

Preheat the grill to medium high and toast the bread on each side for 1 to 2 minutes until golden and warmed through.

Step 8

Spread the cut side of the bread with tapenade (you just need to smeer) and then cut into wedges and then top with sardines and garnish with shaved parmesan (we actually grated the parmesan) and chopped parsley (we used leaves of parsley to decorate).