Jamie's 15 Minute Meals: Butterflied Herring with Tuscan Bread Salad

Another one of Jamie's 15 Minute Meals, they just seem to tie with the ingredients that I have in at the moment. I did change this one a little though, I used herring instead of sardines and bacon instead of pancetta. I also added in lettuce, but I haven't put that in the recipe below. This was a bit disappointing, the salad was really tasty, but I'm not sure about the herring. It wasn't massively tasty, definitely some lemon would have been good, and maybe sardines would have been better.

Butterflied Herring with Tuscan Bread Salad (from Jamie's 15 Minute Meals)

(Serves 4)

1 pinch saffron

4 spring onions

1/2 red chilli

1/2 bunch parsley

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

2 lemons

olive oil

8 fresh herring, scaled and butterflied

4 rashes bacon

Salad

1/2 ciabatta loaf

1 garlic clove

4 anchovy fillets

extra virgin olive oil

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

800g ripe mixed colour tomatoes

1/2 bunch spring onions

1/2 bunch basil

1 tbsp capers

200g jarred roasted red peppers

30g feta cheese

Put the saffron, spring onions, chilli, parsley, fennel seeds, juice of 1 lemon, 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper into a food processor, then pulse into a coarse paste. Rub the paste over a baking tray just big enough to lay out the herring flat on top, skin side up. Lay the bacon between the fish, then grill until golden and crispy, about 8 mins.

Cut 4 2cm thick slices of ciabatta and place on a griddle pan until tossed on both sides. Peel the garlic and out it into the processor with the anchovies, 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, the balsamic and half the tomatoes, spring onions and basil. Whizz to a smooth dressing and season to taste, then tip into a large serving bowl.

Add the capers to the bowl, then randomly cut up and add the peppers. Tear the ciabatta into thumb sized pieces, add to the bowl and toss together. Halve or quarter the remaining tomatoes, trim and finely slice the remaining spring onions and add, the pick over the rest of the basil leaves. Crumble over the feta, and drizzle with 1 tsp of olive oil to finish. Serve with the sardines and lemon wedges.