linguetta

/leen-GWEHT-tah/
[Italian]

A Sicilian method for cleaning sardines. Cut off the heads and fins, but not the tails of the sardines, remove the scales, slit the belly and remove the guts. I have been taught not to wash fish, as this removes flavour. Holding the fish belly up, in the palms of both hands, run your thumb along the backbone so that the fish opens like a book. The remove the backbone, which will have been loosened by this process, as far as the tail.

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