Baked sardine with tomato and lemon サーディンのオーブン焼き

This is not really an Izakaya dish but certainly it goes well with wine or even sake. Many Izakayas in Japan are serving up Western style dishes so this one will do. Not many Americans like canned sardines but we do. Good quality canned sardines from Spain, Portugal and France are readily available. This one happened to be from Spain. The original recipe, if I remember correctly, used the tin in which the sardines were packed as a cooking vessel but I  like to transfer them to a pyrex gratin dish such as the one seen here. Put two or three bay leaves between the sardines and if need add more good quality extra-virgin olive oil (a.k.a. EVOO) to cover. Here I added slices of fresh small tomatoes with the skin removed but you can add or subsitute the tomatoes with, shallot or onion cut up in small pieces as well (The original recipe may have used onions). Place slices of lemon on the top.  I used a toaster oven set to 450F and baked it for 8-10 minutes. Serve it with thin small rounds of toasted crusty bread like baguettes. You can eat lots of bread this way if you are not careful since the olive oil attains such a nice flavor and is perfect for dipping crusty breads. We enjoyed this with a nice California red, Phoenix Vineyards & Rancho Napa Wines Special Reserve Cuvee Meritage 2007.