Grilled mackerel with herb and anchovy sauce

Serves 2

For the sauce, you will need:

• Large handful of parsley leaves • Handful of mint leaves • 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard • 6 anchovies • 250ml extra-virgin olive oil

For the mackerel, you will need:

• 2 whole mackerel, gutted • 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 First, make the sauce. Put the parsley leaves, the mint leaves, the rinsed capers, the Dijon mustard and the anchovies in a food processor and whizz everything for a minute or so until the herbs are finely chopped, then add the extra-virgin olive oil to the mix. Set the sauce aside until it is needed, or put it in a jar in the fridge. If you are storing it for more than a few hours, cover the sauce with a good layer (about half a centimetre) of olive oil. It will keep in the fridge for about a month. 2 Next, cook the mackerel. To barbecue a whole mackerel, as in the photo, above, just slash the fish a few times through the skin on either side. Drizzle the fish fillets on both sides with the olive oil and rub the oil all over the surface. Season the fish with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and place it over the barbecue on an oiled rack, or in a fish holder designed for the barbecue, as seen in the photo. Cook the fish on both sides until it is a deep golden brown and just cooked in the centre. Over a good hot barbecue, the fish will take about 5-10 minutes to cook on each side, so the total cooking time will be 10-20 minutes, depending on your barbecue. 3 If you’re not cooking the mackerel on a barbecue, you can cook filleted mackerel (two fillets with the bones filleted out) on a cast-iron griddle pan, or in a frying pan instead. Put your chosen pan on a high heat and allow it to get hot. Drizzle the fish fillets on both sides with the olive oil and rub the oil all over the surface. Season the fish with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and place the fillets, skin-side down, on the pan. Let the fish brown well on the first side — this will take a couple of minutes. Then turn the fish over, season the other side, and cook it for another couple of minutes until it is golden and crisp. Mackerel fillets will only take a few minutes to cook on a very hot pan. 4 Transfer the cooked fish to plates and serve immediately, drizzled with the herb and anchovy sauce.