We now deal with sardines every day, and we enjoy it. Perhaps you do too? We highly value these little silver wonders as an uncomplicated and versatile everyday delicacy. While they certainly appeal to purists, there's so much you can do with them! We've already tried out a few recipes and have featured them here. But what about the sardine's little sister, the anchovy? Does our imagination stretch beyond a homemade anchovy pizza? Mais bien sur! So let's get started – true to the motto "Let's get down to business!" To keep things simple, I've picked a recipe that's quick and easy to make and doesn't even require many ingredients: homemade anchovy butter. Driven by sardinophilic interest and taste curiosity, I decided to serve her some sardine butter. Let's see which tastes better! Or should we perhaps compare sardines and anchovies just as little as we compare apples and pears?! … Number 1: the anchovy butter Ingredients: 1 small can of anchovies (approx. 50g) 150g soft salted raw milk butter 1 shallot, finely chopped Parsley, chopped 1 pinch of Espelette pepper Combine all ingredients in a blender or blend with an immersion blender until well blended. Transfer the finished butter to a bowl and refrigerate to cool, or place the butter in a piece of wax paper and roll it into a 5-centimeter roll. Store it in the refrigerator or even the freezer. Number 2: the sardine butter Ingredients: 1 can of boneless sardines in olive oil with lemon, e.g. from La Belle-Iloise 100g salted raw milk butter 2 pinches of seaweed leaves Let the butter soften at room temperature. Meanwhile, drain the sardines and mash them with a fork. Then, using a fork, knead the sardines, seaweed leaves, and softened butter together until all the ingredients are well combined. Put the finished butter in a bowl and chill in the refrigerator. The conclusion: Both butter varieties taste delicious and very different, and the salted raw milk butter brings out the characteristic flavor of both very distinctive fishes: The anchovy butter has a very smooth, creamy consistency thanks to the pureeing process and is easy to spread. Its flavor is intense: richly salty, pleasantly fishy, ​​and slightly spicy thanks to the Espelette pepper. The parsley and shallot beautifully balance the aromatic anchovy and add a fruity note to the recipe. Crushing the sardine butter with a fork also gives it a very pleasant, fine, fibrous texture, reminiscent of rillettes. The candied lemon adds a pleasant and highly interesting freshness to the recipe. The recipe is clearly impressive for its simplicity and focus on the fish. Additional ingredients like parsley or onions would have only diluted the flavor. We recommend enjoying the sardine and anchovy butter with crackers or on toasted bread, or with warm potatoes and a green salad. In any case, it should be a simple meal where the fish butter plays the main role. This pairs well with a full-bodied but not overly heavy red wine, such as the Brouilly 2015 Georges Descombes . The bouquet is delicate and pure, with aromas of plums and raspberries, complemented by notes of flint. The exceptional freshness and fruitiness are instantly captivating! Juicy aromas of ripe fruit unfold in the mouth. - - The recipe for the anchovy butter is by Barbara-jo McIntosh, and the recipe for the sardine butter is by Sonia Ezgulan. I've slightly adapted both to my own taste and discretion. The butter-to-fish ratio can be varied, and you don't have to use lemon-flavored sardines either. Experiment and see what you like best and share your favorite variations with us. Send us an email !

We love soups! But what if it's too warm for stew, when squash season is over and the kids don't want to eat pearl barley anymore? The best solution comes from Spain: in the form of gazpacho! This cold soup is healthy, tastes wonderfully fresh and you can vary it wonderfully. We were craving something red this week too... and because the first strawberries are so pretty right now, our chef Thomas created a wonderful strawberry gazpacho for us this week. We are absolutely thrilled and wouldn't mind if this fruit bomb were on our table every day!

At the beginning of October, Thomas Vetter represented us at the Berlin Food Week and held a workshop on "Cooking with vintage sardines" together with my sister Anaïs. The recipe prepared for this occasion was so well received by the visitors and participants that we would like to present it again here. It fits perfectly into the season, picks up on the currently ubiquitous pumpkin and puts it in a new light in combination with sardines and coriander - a welcome change from the classic pumpkin soup...

For the second year in a row, I went to Denmark with friends over Easter this year to let the waves swirl me around and sweep me off my surfboard. On good days, you could even call it surfing. A few days out of the city, enjoying the rugged nature and the wide sky, spending the day wrapped up head to toe in 5 mm neoprene on the board and in the cold North Sea, and relaxing in the evenings with good friends by the fireplace... We always have a lot of fun cooking together! This time, I brought a few cans of sardines with me and was inspired by Danish eating habits to create a Nordic sardine dish – my version of smørrebrød! The recipe combines various sweet and sour flavors and tastes wonderfully spicy and refreshing. And because we all enjoyed it so much, I made it again at home in Berlin to share with you. Ingredients (1 - 2 people) 1 can of sardines in olive oil (e.g. Sardines La Molénaise from Les Mouettes d'Arvor ) lemon Sour cream 1 apple Pickle(s) Carrot(s) salt and pepper preparation Drain the sardines, cut them lengthwise, drizzle generously with lemon juice, spread with sour cream, season lightly with salt, and let them marinate. Meanwhile, finely chop the apple (or grate it if you prefer), finely chop the gherkin, and finely chop the carrot. Mix everything together well and pour over the marinated sardines. Serve with crispy toasted brown bread. Then it's up to you whether you want to eat the bread with the sardine preparation or top it with the sardine, as is traditionally done with smørrebrød. After trying both versions and finding both fantastic, I can only say one thing with certainty: Bon appétit, or rather, Velbekomme! Our wine recommendation: To accompany this dish, we recommend Les Terrasses Blanc from Château Pesquié, a refreshing white wine from the Rhône (Côtes du Ventoux) with a fresh, fruity bouquet and a wonderfully crisp acidity. Another classic is the combination of Sauvignon Blanc with fish, which also works wonderfully in this case. Choose, for example, the Argadens Blanc , a 2013 Bordeaux Superieur with a high Sauvignon content, delicate oak notes, and a beautiful, long-lasting freshness. -- And because every meal tastes so much better in the right ambience, here are a few more impressions: (Photos by Pascal Gemmer and Jan-Ole Schmidt)

Recently, I went on a canoe trip on the Spree with friends. It was wonderful—we felt like real freshwater pirates...! The picnic on land included, among other things, wonderfully cool rosé (we had dragged it behind us in a bag in the water) and delicious little puff pastry parcels that my friend Anne had prepared. The recipe inspired me to create a version with sardines, which I recreated at home. It's super easy and looks really beautiful. Perfect for a picnic with friends or a dinner for two (or three, or four...)... as an aperitif, as finger food, as a starter, or as a main course, perhaps with a green salad! Bon appétit! Ingredients (for 2 people) 1 package of puff pastry (if you don't make it yourself) some sesame 1 small eggplant 1 small zucchini 3 - 4 mushrooms Feta Zucchini cream and/or tapenade (black olive paste from Provence) 1 pack of oil sardines (e.g. the Sardines Saint-Georges from La Belle-Iloise) olive oil Salt pepper Wash the vegetables and cut them into cubes, while preheating the oven to 200°. Heat oil in a pan and fry the vegetables until lightly browned and translucent, but still a little al dente. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on a tabletop or board and roll out the puff pastry on it. Press the sesame seeds firmly into the dough. Then cut the dough into even squares (I use 6 pieces from one roll). Spread a dollop of the zucchini cream and tapenade onto the center of the dough squares (you can skip this if you like. Since I like both, I made three pastries with tapenade and the others with zucchini cream. Tapenade makes the pastries more flavorful, while zucchini cream makes them more "vegetable"). Place the vegetables on top in small piles, then add the diced feta and small pieces of sardine. Be careful not to put too much filling on the dough, or the pastries will expand too much in the oven! Fold the dough corners diagonally together to form nice, tight parcels. Make sure to press the loose ends and sides together firmly. This requires some dexterity, but it's important, as otherwise the parcels will expand too much in the oven. Bake on the middle rack for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and serve hot. Bon appétit! We bought a bottle Alento Rosé 2016 Alentejo It was a perfect match! A young, intense Portuguese rosé wine full of joie de vivre – an uncomplicated everyday wine that goes well with all dishes, but is also enjoyable on its own.

Mmmm, delicious, delicious... :) Recently found on the blog of a Spanish woman (www.letitbecosy.com) who lives in Mallorca and cooks mainly vegetarian food. I've always enjoyed discovering new flavor combinations, and I'm particularly interested in unusual combinations with fish... so I added sardines in oil to one of her recipes. The recipe is very simple, and the result is excitingly fresh and incredibly delicious. I imagine it would also taste great with sardines in Muscadet or sardines in water and lemon. I'll try it that way next time! And this is what it looks like when it’s finished: Bon appetite!

A super simple, quick, but no less sophisticated and tasty amuse-bouche made from just a few ingredients. Crunchy, juicy, salty, spicy... all the flavors of summer! Add the well-chilled sweet wine, which provides a nice contrast, and you have a sophisticated snack, perfect for the summer aperitif! Chin-chin and bon appétit!

The nice thing about being cooked is that completely new combinations of flavors and ingredients are often put on the table that you would not have thought of before. That was exactly the case when Thomas served us the exotic-spicy variation of an asparagus meal this week: he surprised us with green and white asparagus with a sweet potato-coconut cream, the mild sweetness of which formed a nice contrast to the savory sardinettes. When everything was eaten, we licked our fingers for more and are happy that the asparagus season has only just begun.