Spare a moment if you will to consider the humble sardine.
In this country, for years, our knowledge of these silvery little fish was all put limited to what we could find entombed in tomato sauce or a slick of faux-lemon oil in a tin with a key.
These days though, with a growing interest on our part in Mediterranean food and cooking, the fresh sardine is being elevated to loftier heights and showing up on some of the nation's chic-est menus.
In the last of our series of recipes from her book Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons, Diana Henry introduced Anna McNamee to a Sicilian delicacy called Sardines Beccafino - a dish that should eclipse the memory of the metallic tinned variety forever.
