Tajine de sardines à la chermoula — Safi, Morocco

This dish sets whole sardines, opened and boned, in pairs around a spread of chermoula — the cilantro, garlic, cumin, paprika and lemon marinade that accompanies most Moroccan fish cookery — before cooking them in a tagine over a bed of vegetables. It is a way of turning a small, oily fish into a substantial, shareable main course. It is reported from Safi, a city on Morocco's Atlantic coast known as the country's leading sardine port, where the fish is landed daily in large quantities and treated as a serious matter rather than a humble one. Fish stalls sell sardines already opened and boned specifically for this dish, and it is common enough to appear on the everyday table. To prepare it, sardines are opened and their bones removed, then two fish are pressed together around a layer of chermoula so the marinade sits between them like a filling. Rounds of potato, tomato and pepper line a tagine dish, are seasoned and moistened with a little of the marinade and water, and the paired sardines and a piece of preserved lemon are arranged on top before slow cooking until the vegetables soften and the fish is cooked through. The dish is eaten with bread, dipped into the reddened sauce left by the vegetables and chermoula. The same stuffed, paired sardines also appear coated in breadcrumbs and fried, sold as a street sandwich in Safi — a simpler, quicker version of the same idea that trades the tagine for a hot pan and a loaf of bread.