Originally published at: Brisling sardines just changed my life | Boing Boing
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A headline that could work for any strong reaction, positive, negative, or anaphylactic.
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I’m not sure I’ve ever had any sardine. I should try. Unfortunately, according to Instacart anyway, my local ShopRite doesn’t carry brisling sardines.
ETA: Wegman’s has them, but the nearest Wegman’s is 30 miles away.
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The picture is misleading as I usually shred the sardines so they are mixed well with the parsley and other ingredients.
edited to at this link which has video and explanation of various sardine types:
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“Brislings live in clean water, such as the Norwegian fjords, where the fishing industry is strictly regulated.”
Added context: our fishing industry might be strictly regulated, but we still have plummeting fish stocks both due to overfishing and climate change (which affects both breeding rates and migration patterns), and there’s an ongoing court battle from environmental organizations fighting a government order to allow a mining company to use one of our deeper fjords as a dumping ground for mine waste. So, eh, both of those statements should be taken with a grain of salt.
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Ya, know, nevermind. Enjoy your sardines! I’ma be over here with my avocado toast sans fish, cheering you on.
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If you like sardines, try this.
You’re welcome
1 lb. package of pasta*
2 or 3 tins of brisling sardines packed in olive oil
1/2 to 3/4 cup of fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 cup of pine nuts
2 to 3 cloves of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
Butter
Salt
Black pepper
Red pepper flakes
Fresh parsley
Set up your mise en place: (have all your ingredients ready for use before you start because this comes together very quickly.)
Cook pasta per the package directions. While that’s going, melt butter in a large skillet. Add oil from the sardines and lightly sauté crushed garlic. Add the breadcrumbs and more EVOO to lightly wet them. Toast over medium heat adding salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes to taste. Add pine nuts midway through the toasting process until everything is golden brown. Remove from heat and add sardines. Gently blend so as not to break them up too much along with a handful of chopped parsley. Drain the cooked pasta and toss it in a bowl with a little butter along with about 1/2 of your breadcrumb mixture. The balance of the breadcrumbs are served on the side for extra goodness.
- I use rotini because it nicely holds the breadcrumb mixture. You can use what you want but if the topping sifts to the bottom, leaving a mound of mostly naked noodle on top well, that’s on you.
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More salt for your sardines, sir? /s
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It’s also beneficial to eat further down the foodchain, both environmentally as well as for health. Fish have the benefit of adding omega 3 fatty acids to your diet, but fish near the top of the food chain like tuna and salmon carry higher heavy metal content. Tiny schooling fish like sardines, small mackerel, and anchovies have much less heavy metal buildup but as much or more healthy oils.
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A bit more complicated version of a classic, and if you want your breadcrumbs to stick to your pasta better, take the pasta as soon as it is drained, stir and toss it together in the pan with the breadcrumb mixture, and then add the parsley.
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I can co-endorse Dave’s Killer bread, except his hamburger buns, which are surprisingly not good.
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If I type Brisling sardines into my local Kroger nothing come up in store, HOWEVER, King Oscar brand only uses Brisling sardines, it just doesn’t make it into the title and so doesn’t make it into a search. They are really good, BTW. See if your store has King Oscar. It is a fairly popular brand
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Ooooh, ok. Good to know. They do have that brand. Thx.
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We’ve actually made this but with anchovies instead. To dilute their over-fishiness, we put them in milk for ~15 minutes, pat them dry, then smash them for wider dispersal in the recipe. Much less fishiness and “goodness” preserved. 
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I will have to pick some up for my spouse. I can’t stand sardines personally, but he likes them
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FWIW, on their website it appears that King Oscar offers two kinds of sardines, only one of which is brisling.
The wrappers of the brislings do say “finest brisling” in the small print—though, as you say, it’s not in the title; they are just called “Wild Caught Sardines” (see the photos of the packages on the linked page).
The others are called “Skinless & Boneless Sardines”.
For our world-famous gourmet brisling sardines, we use remarkably tiny and tender sprattus sprattus, responsibly wild-caught from Norway’s pristine, icy fjords and coastal waters
vs
King Oscar brings you the best quality skinless and boneless sardines in the world. We make ours the old-fashioned way from small pilchard, sustainably wild-caught in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Morocco.
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If you like canned tuna, but are worried about either the environmental effects or the mercury, I can definitely recommend switching the canned sardines, or canned mackerel (the latter is not quite as environmental, but an easier switch as it’s very mild).
I used to make a Sicilian tuna pasta basically the way @BigBoppa described it (which itself was already based on Pasta con le sarde), and have switched the a mix of mackerel and sardines and the little kids still love it.
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The version with anchovies and walnuts is a traditional Neapolitan dish for Christmas Eve. I’ve had it every year of my life for as long as I can remember, (I’m 71 now). The story I was told as a kid is that because anchovies were abundant and the walnut harvest being in November, it was something that most peasant families could afford for the special feast.
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