Appetizer
Cycladic Fried Smelt Pie (Atherinopita)
- Total timeTotal
- 30′
- ServingsServings
- 4
In the Cyclades, locals cook unique fish meze, like atherinopita from Syros.
In the Cyclades, locals cook unique fish meze, like atherinopita from Syros.
It's a recipe with very simple steps that will win you over! It's just fried sand smelt (atherina, a tiny Mediterranean fish, similar to whitebait) with onions, except that everything is fried together into one delicious pie.
The recipe
Cycladic Fried Smelt Pie Recipe
Total time 30′ · 4 servings
Ingredients
Method
- Rinse the sand smelt well under cold running water and let it drain in a colander.
- Peel the onion, cut it in half and slice each half thinly.
- In a large bowl, combine the fish with the onion, the flour, a little chopped parsley, salt and pepper, and toss gently by hand until the flour coats everything.
- You can also add a few capers, as long as you rinse them well first.
- Heat a large frying pan with about 1 cm of olive oil, and wait until the oil is hot.
- Add the fish mixture to the pan, shaping it into one pie, and fry for a few minutes until golden underneath.
- TipIf your pan isn’t very large, make 2 smaller pies.
- Using a plate, flip the pie over to cook the other side.
- Serve the atherinopita hot, with a little parsley, lemon and chopped cherry tomatoes for freshness.
