Get The Cans In, It's Tinned Food Month

And the magic and power of a good sandwich with Annalisa Barbieri

Hello! Happy Workers’ Rights Day to you and yours. Don’t let the bosses grind you down. May will be TINNED FOOD MONTH on the newsletter which means I’ll be bringing you inexpensive recipes with my favourite tinned foods. This week we begin with Charred Lemon and Sardine Orzo – I love it and I hope you will too. In The Interview, I speak to the Guardian Weekend’s Agony Aunt and host of my favourite podcast: Annalisa Barbieri, about sandwiches, memories from the butcher, and Italian doughnuts…

During Tinned Food Month I will be exploring new ways with some of the most bargainous products on the supermarket shelves. This week it’s all eyes on my favourite of the tins: sardines. I have been a big fan of sardines since leaving home at 18 and finding they cost 20p per tin at the shops. In fact, the first recipe I ever shared on What’s That You’re Cooking, Thea? back in the Tumblr days was Sardine Pasta, and I still cook that nutty and fruity concoction frequently to this day. The tins can now cost upwards of £1, sadly, but still represent some of the cheapest protein going.

This easy orzo recipe is a quicker, 20 minute meal that incorporates some of the flavours from that original. The sardines are paired with little nuggets of charred lemon and lots of soft herbs. It might sound mad to eat lemon skin, but when you char thin slices in a pan, you bring out all the lemon’s natural sweetness by caramelising its sugars. Paired with the shiny little sardines in tomato sauce, and showered in plenty of chopped herbs and olive oil, little else is needed for a weeknight dinner. This dish tastes great cold as a pasta salad too. Do you eat the bones of tinned sardines? I sure as hell do, because there aren’t many opportunities to eat fish bones in this life and I think we should take them where we get them.