Sardines au plat on shallots with butter, lemon and white wine

Dice the shallots very thinly and scatter them in a small or larger dish.

Add small cubes of butter.

Lay the gutted, headless sardines head to tail, alternating tails left and right.

Optionally add a little more shallot and a tiny bit more butter on top.

Drizzle with a little lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, and add a small amount of white wine, so the sardines almost grill rather than poach.

Cook in a very hot oven at 250 degrees Celsius with top and bottom elements, or under the broiler with the dish set above the middle, near the grill, for 10 minutes, until the shallots cook, the butter melts, the wine boils and the sardines crisp.

Know the oven: if it is not strong enough the sardines boil, overcook and dry out; do a trial run first.

Spoon some of the pan juices over the top, decorate with chopped fresh parsley and the burnt shallots, and serve with a lemon slice or two.