Store cupboard saviours: how to make the most out of tinned sardines – recipes

A simple sardine and celery salad, and a puttanesca sauce made with sardines instead of anchovies and served on soft polenta

Little fish, big flavour. A tin of silvery sardines bathed in oil or tomato will give you a headstart on dinner, whether they’re left whole, flaked or mashed to toss through pasta or traybakes, piled on to just-boiled rice or a slice of toast (alongside tomatoes and onion, say). And their strong, umami flavour means you don’t need many of them to pack a proper punch, whether that’s in a sauce, such as today’s puttanesca to spoon over polenta (or pasta), or folded through a salad.