sardines under running water, rubbing them gently to remove any stray scales, then pat them dry. Get a small sharp knife, preferably a flexible one like a fillet knife. Put the sardines on a cutting board. Hold your knife perpendicular to a fish and insert it into the flesh just behind the head. Grip the head with your other hand and use a gentle sawing motion to cut along the backbone toward the tail to remove the first fillet. Flip the fish over and do the same to the other side. Repeat with the rest of the sardines. Lay each one skin side down on the cutting board and trim off any fins, hard bits, or dark bits from the edges. Leave the thin bones be. They’ll dissolve as the fish marinate.
CARTA DA MUSICA WITH BOTTARGA AND BUTTER
I had the great pleasure of eating this for the first time at Marcella Hazan’s house. Before serving a stunningly simple veal shank (see Dinner with Marcella, here), she set out crispy discs of paper-thin flatbread that she’d brushed with butter and showered with shavings of slightly caramel-y bottarga, the salted dried roe of the grey mullet. We ate them pressed against each other, like slim sandwiches.
She told us that the bread, a Sardinian treat, is called carta da musica, which translates as ‘sheet of music’, because of its fragile thinness (it is known as pane carasau in the Sardinian dialect). Carta da musica is ingenious, really: a simple dough that puffs up like a balloon in the oven, which you then separate into two thin layers that are baked again until they go crispy. Your task is to make sure you roll the dough to an even thickness and lay it nice and flat on a hot pizza stone. You’ll quickly get hang of it.
makes 12 little sandwiches
FOR THE DOUGH
75g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
75g very fine semolina flour
¼ teaspoon sea salt
FOR THE SANDWICHES
45g unsalted butter, at room temperature
75g Sardinian grey mullet bottarga, very thinly sliced at the last minute on a mandoline
Maldon or another flaky sea salt
1 or 2 dried pequin chillies, crumbled, or pinches of red pepper flakes (optional)
Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling
Special Equipment
Pizza stone; mandoline
Make the dough: Mix the flours and salt in a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Slowly pour in 50ml room-temperature water, stirring it in with a fork. Use the fork to mix gradually, adding more water if necessary, until all the flour is incorporated and you have a smooth, barely moist, firm but pliable dough.
Lightly dust a work surface with flour, put the dough on the work surface, and knead it until it’s as smooth as a baby’s bum, about 7 minutes.
Roll the dough into a log that’s about 15cm long and 5cm thick. Wrap it in clingfilm and let rest for at least 2 hours or overnight in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 230°C/450°F/gas 8. Put an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and remove any other racks. Put a pizza stone on the rack and let it get good and hot, at least 20 minutes. If it’s not really hot, your dough won’t puff up like a balloon, which is essential.
Dust your work surface with plenty of flour. Cut the log into six 2.5cm-thick pieces and cover them with a barely damp tea towel. Working with one at a time, on the floured surface, roll each disc into a thin, even circle about 15cm in diameter. Even thickness is important; otherwise, the circles won’t puff up.
Make the carta da musica: One or two at a time, carefully lay the discs on the hot pizza stone so they lie completely flat, with no folds, bumps, or creases, or (guess what?) they won’t puff up. Bake until they begin to bubble, then start to puff, about 4 minutes. Once they do, flip them gently but swiftly with a spatula and continue to cook until they have completely inflated, a minute or two. Remove them from the oven (don’t turn it off) and immediately cover them with a clean cloth. Use a pan, round tray, or rolling pin to flatten them, forcing the air out. Let them cool to the touch with the towel still on top.
Use a knife to cut around the edges of each circle to separate it into the 2 thin rounds that separated during the puffing up, and stack them one on top of the other. Try to keep them intact, because it’ll be a bit easier to finish the dish that way, but if you don’t end up with 2 perfect circles, no matter.
Working in batches, bake the 12 circles on the hot stone once again, turning them over once, until they’re crispy and have golden-brown patches here and there, 1 to 1½ minutes per batch. Let them cool completely.
Generously butter one side of each of the crispy discs (a pastry brush makes this easy). Sprinkle the bottarga over 6 of the discs. Sprinkle a little salt and crumbled chilli over each one, then drizzle with the tiniest bit of olive oil. Make 6 sandwiches, topping the bottarga with the remaining discs, butter side down.
Gently break each one in half and eat straight away.
MOZZARELLA AND SPECK SANDWICHES
This is a great sandwich when you’ve got a drink in one hand and want a nibble in the other. Unlike most grilled cheese, this little guy doesn’t require a slathering of butter to go perfectly crispy. I like to use day-old good bread, the airy kind pocked with holes. I squish the sandwiches with my spatula as they cook, and the fat from the mozzarella leaks out and urges the bread towards golden brown. Once you’ve made this a few times, you can start playing around a bit, tucking in herbs like basil or rosemary.
serves 4 as lunch, 8 as a snack
Two 225g balls mozzarella di bufala
Eight 1cm-thick slices day-old rustic bread
16 thin slices speck or 8 thin slices prosciutto
Drain the mozzarella and cut it into sixteen 0.5cm-thick slices. Lay the slices on a few layers of kitchen paper and pat them with more paper, pressing on the slices a bit to sop up some of their liquid.
Put 2 slices of mozzarella on each of 4 slices of the bread. Top each with 4 slices of speck or 2 slices of prosciutto (make sure there’s plenty hanging off the sides so it can get crispy), then top off with 2 more slices of mozzarella. Top the stacks with the remaining bread and press down lightly.
Grab a large non-stick pan and pop it over medium heat. Once it’s nice and hot, place 2 of the sandwiches in the pan. Every now and again, give the sandwiches a good old press with the back of a spatula. Once their bottom sides are golden with patches of brown here and there, about 6 minutes, carefully flip the sandwiches. Cook on their other sides, again making sure to give the sandwiches a few good squishes, until they’re deep golden brown, about 6 minutes more. Repeat with the remaining sandwiches and serve.
