But have you ever thought about those meaty little whitebaits breaded and fried? Or grilled with garlic and olive oil? Or baked in a pie?

Here are some of our favorite recipes for Spanish Sardines.

Fresh Sardines with Olive Oil and Oregano

Sarde all'Olio e Origano

2 ½ pounds of fresh, living Whitebaits (4 inches or so is about perfect)

Salt

1 Cup of Olive Oil

1 fresh red chili or banana pepper (depending on your taste)

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh oregano (MUCH preferred), or 1 ½ teaspoons dried

Juice of 1 lemon

If the sardines are still alive in the bait well when you get home, put them in lots of ice and water to, let's say, help them exit this world gracefully. Don't let them die in the well. Put them on ice while they're still making those cute little squeaking noises.

Clean the sardines. The best way to do this is to rub the scales off with the knife (they come off very easily), cut the head off, slit the stomach, and pull out the intestines. Slice them open along the backbone and pull it out with your fingers. When you're done, you should have a small butterfly of fresh sardine meat.

Brush the bottom and sides of a 9x13 inch baking pan with olive oil. Place a layer of sardines in the bottom, open side down. Sprinkle them with salt, a little of the lemon juice, and some of the oregano. Continue building layers until the sardines are used up. Sprinkle the top with the remaining lemon juice and oregano.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the dish for about fifteen or twenty minutes or until the sardines are tender. Serve with crusty bread and have everyone sit around and eat from the same dish they were baked in.

Sicilian Stuffed Sardines

Sarde e Beccafico

2 ½ pounds fresh whitebait.

Salt and pepper

Olive Oil

8 Tablespoons of soft breadcrumbs

½ cup of white raisins

½ cup of pine nuts (you can use the bottled kind, available at most specialty food stores)

1 teaspoon of white sugar

6 anchovies (1/2 a small can), washed well and boned

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 onion, also finely chopped

3 Cloves of garlic, finely minced

2 bay leaves (if you can get fresh, use four or five leaves. Fresh isn't as strong as dried)

1 Orange, juiced, with pulp

Clean the sardines. Wash them in salted water and dry them on paper towels. Wash the anchovies to remove excess salt.

Slowly heat 1 ¼ cups of olive oil in a frying pan and add 4 tablespoons of the breadcrumbs. Stir until nicely browned. Remove them with a slotted spoon and put them in a bowl. In that same bowl, add the white raisins, pine nuts, and sugar. Make sure you've washed the anchovies, pound them into a paste, and add them to the mixture as well. Add plenty of fresh ground black pepper, the parsley, and the onions. Knead this mixture until it's a good even consistency. Stuff a little into each of the sardines and close them up.

Brush a baking pan with olive oil, and arrange the stuffed sardines in one layer. Break the bay into a few pieces and put them on top. Cover the entire dish with the remaining breadcrumbs.

Preheat the oven to 375F. Bake the sardines until the breadcrumbs are nicely browned, about 30 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the orange juice. Serve immediately.

Fried Sardines Greek Style

A good friend of ours taught us this recipe. It's a killer dish, and one that the fisherman in the Greek islands often make and take with them in their boats, where there is obviously no refrigeration. The vinegar and oil combine to preserve the fish, and the results can be kept for a week in the jar, or longer in the fridge. Tasty as this one is, it rarely lasts that long, and anyway, we can always go out and throw the net if we need more.

2 ½ pounds fresh whitebait, about 4 inches long

1 Cup olive oil

Flour

Salt and Pepper

½ cup red wine vinegar

4 Cloves of fresh garlic, chopped fine.

1 onion, chopped fine

1 tablespoon parsley, chopped

1 teaspoon fresh rosemary (if you can get it!), or 1 ½ teaspoons dried.

Clean the sardines. Dredge them in the flour.

Heat the Olive oil until it's hot but not smoking. Quickly fry the sardines in two or three batches, and drain them on a paper towel. Set them aside and keep them warm.

Using a strainer or coffee filter, strain the oil to remove the bits of flour. Quickly wipe out the bottom of the pan to remove any burnt pieces of flour. You don't have to wash it out, just wipe it a bit. Put about two tablespoons of the oil back in the pan, and add the garlic, frying until it releases its odors. Add the onions, parsley, rosemary, a dash of salt to taste, and lots of fresh black pepper. Continue frying just until the onions start to get translucent. Put the sardines back into the pan and continue frying for about five minutes on medium, to heat everything through.

Combine the vinegar and strained oil in a jar, and shake it until it's well mixed. Make a layer of sardines, along with the onions and pan drippings in the bottom of a glass baking dish or casserole, and pour some of the oil and vinegar mixture over the top. Repeat this process, making layers of sardines, until you've used them all.

While you can certainly eat these while they're hot (just try one of the fried sardines alone, or with a little bit of hot sauce), the best thing to do at this point is to cover the dish and put it in the fridge overnight. This is a wonderful cold snack served over crackers or with crusty bread.

Fresh Sardines with Fennel

Sardine al Finocchio

Fresh fennel isn't that easy to find in the United States, although it's a very common and popular vegetable in Italy. This recipe uses fennel seeds, which can easily be found in the spice racks of your local grocery. This is a wonderfully rich and savory recipe, and one that will serve well as a main course, or as a side dish for grilled redfish. It eats well on al dente pasta.

2 lbs fresh greenbacks

Olive Oil

1 large onion, sliced thin

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

½ cup of white Italian wine (Soave is a good choice) or a dry Zinfandel

1 lb of red, ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped

Salt and pepper

Dry flavored breadcrumbs

4 teaspoons of fennel seeds, pounded

The best way to prepare the tomatoes is to drop them into boiling water. Remove the pan from the heat, and let it stand for a few minutes. The skin will pull off quite easily. Cut them in half and remove the seeds with a small spoon. Once they're pretty well seeded, chop the fruit into small cubes. If you're in a hurry, use a 14 ounce can of crushed tomatoes.

Put ¼ cup of olive oil in a frying pan, and heat slowly on a medium heat. Add the garlic. When you can smell the aroma, put the onions in and fry them until they're soft and translucent. Pour in the wine and cook until the mixture is reduced by about a third. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Add the tomatoes and cook over a brisk heat, stirring often, until reduced to a puree, about 10 or 12 minutes.

In the meantime, clean the sardines and drain well. Pat them dry, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and roll them in the breadcrumbs.

Pour the tomato mixture into a shallow baking dish and arrange the sardines in two neat rows on top. Sprinkle a little olive oil on them, and then the fennel seeds.

Bake the entire thing, uncovered, in a preheated 375F. oven, about 30 minutes, or until the sardines are a nice golden brown.