Let's start with cleaning the sarde. Let us open them and we take off the head, guts and bones. Then, rinse them in cold water and set aside.
Toast the bread crumbs in a pan, stirring constantly (... It burns very easily) until it reaches a golden brown color. As soon as the roasting will be correct remove it from the heat and place in a bowl. Add the chopped garlic to the breadcrumbs, pine nuts coarsely chopped, raisins previously held in warm water and about 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Mix well to obtain a homogeneous mixture.

When this compound will be ready place a teaspoon of stuffing on each sardine this, on the inner side. Roll the sardine on itself and lay it in a baking dish (previously greased with olive oil). Do the same for all the sarde and place them in the pan so that they are tight to each other, this will prevent their opening during cooking. Among a roll of sarda and the subsequent insert a bay leaf vertically.

At this point prepare an emulsion with lemon juice (formerly filter it through a strainer so that there are no seeds and pulp residues), a little salt and a dash of olive oil. Sprinkle the obtained emulsion above the sarde and bake at 180 -200 C for about 15 minutes.
They are very good warm but are even more tasty if eaten at room temperature after having rested a little after baking.

The beccafico sardines (or as they say in Sicily sarde a beccaficu) are a classic dish of Sicilian gastronomic tradition, particularly of the city of Palermo. The singular name, "beccafico", which originates from the beccafichi are birds that belong to the family of Warblers. The beccafichi were birds that in the past the Sicilian nobles hunted and ate filled with a stuffing made of bones and entrails of the same birds.

The Sicilian common people, not having the means to prepare this dish expensive but willing it to imitate thought to prepare a poor imitation with the ingredients available to them ie the sarde, bread, pine nuts and little else .... They could not imagine that one day this poor man's dish would become a king of the table. In fact, today this traditional Sicilian dish is included in the list of traditional Italian food products (PAT) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

A portion of the beccafico sardines provides about 450 kcal. It 'a good source of vitamin potassium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, selenium, iodine, vitamins B2, B6, niacin, B12, E and D. The energy that brings you to about 30% from protein, 42% from fat and 29% from carbohydrates.