Mediterranean-style herring linguine
Herring is one of my favourite fish in the sea and it's dead cheap, so it's a real 'value' fish. And cooking it like this makes it stretch much further, making it even better value for money. Places like Sweden revere it but in British seas, about 97% gets taken elsewhere or turned into fertiliser or fish feed. I reckon half the reason we've fallen out of love with herring is because we've become quite lazy and don't like the thought of getting rid of all those bones. Well I've got a solution, simply trim down the fillet on either side of the bones to give you two sort of goujons, and chuck the bony bit away. Your fishmonger should be able to do it for you. Because cod and haddock normally feed on herring, as their numbers deplete, the numbers of herring are obviously rising. So we really need to be eating further down the food chain! Also, because herring feed on plankton and so on, they're the ones that are really full of those omega 3s, vitamin D and all that other good stuff.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 10 of 11 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 10 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Butter | 1 tbsp (14g) | 102 |
| Cherry | 1 cup (138g) | 87 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Lemon | juice of 1 lemon (48ml) | 12 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Capers | 1 tbsp (9g) drained | 2 |
| Parsley | 1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g) | 1 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Herring | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- 500 g dried linguine
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
- 1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced
- 1 tablespoon small capers
- 1 small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped, stalks finely sliced
- 4 x 40 g herring fillets, from
- , ask your fishmonger, skin on, scaled and pin-boned, cut into 2cm strips
- 1 small handful vine cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 1 lemon
- 1 knob butter, optional