Grilled sardines with samphire salsa verde

...following on from the samphire salsa verde post earlier, here's a serving suggestion!

Flatten out your sardines, slash the skin a few times, season well with salt and black pepper, and put them under a hot grill for 3-4 minutes.
Arrange a circle of salad leaves on each plate, and in the middle, scatter some garlic croutons dotted with spoonfuls of the salsa. Place the grilled sardines ontop of the croutons and dot the last of the salsa on top. Squeeze over some lemon juice and you're done!

Samphire salsa verde

This is a great accompaniment to fish. Try it with grilled Cornish sardines!

Handful of fresh samphire
A few cornichons or pickled gherkins
Tablespoon of chopped mint or lemon mint
Tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley
Plenty of freshly ground black pepper
A few capers
A big dash of cider vinegar, or white wine vinegar
A couple of lugs of olive oil

Either chop everything by hand or use a mixer. Check for seasoning - there's no need to add salt, as the samphire is really salty. If you're using ordinary mint, you might want a squeeze of lemon juice. Make it a couple of hours before you need it and let the flavours mingle in the fridge.

Prawn, samphire and roasted pepper pasta salad

A summertime supper dish. I love samphire (or 'Hampshire', as predictive text prefers) with fish, with all its salty, mineral flavours. You can eat it raw, but it's also really nice just quickly steamed.

Serves two

Handful of samphire
200g raw prawns
A roasted sweet red pepper, cut into chunks
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Pasta, cooked and cooled
Handful of rocket

For the dressing:
Juice of half a lemon, olive oil, sea salt

Steam the samphire and prawns together for just a few minutes, until the prawns are done. Meanwhile, toss all the other ingredients together with half the dressing. When the prawns and samphire are done, add them to the dish and drizzle over the rest of the dressing.