Sardenaira

A Ligurian tray flatbread with anchovies and no cheese at all.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 500 g strong white flour
• 320 ml water
• 7 g fresh yeast
• 60 ml olive oil
• 10 g salt
• 600 g tomato passata
• 12 salted anchovies, rinsed and boned
• 100 g taggiasca olives
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano

Method

1. Make a soft dough with the flour, water, yeast, oil and salt. Knead 10 minutes and prove 2 hours.
2. Press it into an oiled tray about 1.5 cm thick with oiled fingertips and prove again 45 minutes.
3. Cook the passata down for 20 minutes until it is thick enough to mound on a spoon. A wet sauce on a tray dough gives a raw middle.
4. Spread the thickened tomato, then press the anchovies, olives, capers and WHOLE UNPEELED GARLIC CLOVES into the surface. The cloves are left whole and in their skins — they steam sweet inside and are squeezed out or set aside, not eaten whole.
5. NO CHEESE. Not a topping that was left off for economy: mozzarella would smother the anchovy and caper, which are the dish.
6. Bake at 220C for 25 minutes.
7. Scatter the oregano AS IT COMES OUT, never before, and let it cool to warm before cutting it in squares.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes