Sardines in olive paste à la Christian Lohse - "not a soup, but also awesome"

Our friend and regular customer Christian Lohse – one of the most interesting chefs in Germany, currently chef de cuisine at Fischers Fritz – has published a wonderful cookbook with the Umschau Verlag, which has the absolutely fitting title “Lohse’s mouthwork” . It contains recipes for soups and stews that the master chef has thought up himself or that he knows from friends. In the middle of this illustrious collection he has smuggled a recipe for sardines in olive paste – “not a soup but still great”. Which brings us back to Lohse’s mouthwork.

We don't really care if one or two readers of the cookbook feel like they've won the game "Find the mistake" on page 185. We're much more pleased that Monsieur Lohse seems to love the "sardines à la tapenade" from La Belle-Iloise as much as we do.
And while the fine gentleman is currently romping around in Antarctica and probably trying to make friends with a few penguins, we are practicing the art of imitation and presenting you this little culinary outlier as our current recipe of the week.

Ingredients for 2 - 4 people:

• 1 young fennel bulb
• 1 bunch of spring onions
• 2 small vine tomatoes or confit tomatoes (available in our refrigerated display case)
• 2 basil leaves (or a little more, depending on your preference)
• 1 can of sardines in tapenade
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• Oil for frying

Preparation:
Clean the fennel bulb and blanch it in lightly salted water until it is al dente, then cut the green tips into pieces of around 2 cm. Use the white part for something else (this evening I made a quick and easy salad with finely chopped fennel, fresh cocktail tomatoes and basil in a tangy dressing made from olive oil, lemon, fleur de sel and pepper). Blanch the fennel briefly, cut it in half lengthways and fry it in a pan until the strands turn dark. Fry the tomatoes too. If you are using our confit tomatoes: just put them in the pan as they are and fry until they are nice and crispy. If you are using fresh tomatoes: halve them, season with salt and pepper and fry in a little oil until they fall apart. Roughly chop the basil leaves and add them to the tomatoes.

Arrange the sardines on one (or more) plate(s), spread all the prepared ingredients over them, drizzle with balsamic vinegar and season with piment d'Espelette .

Bon appetite!

The conclusion: this "recipe", which is actually more of a serving suggestion for advanced diners, is a real explosion of flavors! Mediterranean and sun-kissed, totally "gourmand" as they would say in France. Every bite makes you want more, the aromatic sardine is wonderfully complemented by a colorful canon of tart, fruity olive paste, sweet tomatoes with spicy basil, dark-sweet balsamic vinegar, the beautifully spicy Piment d'Espelette and the fresh, crisp vegetables. You don't really need any bread with it. A glass of wine shouldn't be missing though (see below)!

Our wine recommendation: The wonderful Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence Rosé 2023 from Hecht & Bannier goes perfectly with this incredibly aromatic meal. It has just the right level of power and character to underline all the flavors of the sardine and bring them out even more, without dominating them.

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"Lohses Mundwerk" by Christian Lohse was published in 2015 by Umschau Verlag .

The beautiful wooden board is a unique piece that was made by hand from American walnut. It was made by Arnd Seibert from Ovaso .