NURI Sardines in Tomato Sauce. Whole sardines in tomato paste and olive oil – the tin that even children will eat.
NURI Sardines in Tomato Sauce are whole Portuguese sardines, steam-cooked and hand-placed in a sauce made of 25 percent tomato paste and olive oil, seasoned only with salt – 125g tin with 90g of fish. No sugar, no thickeners, no added flavorings: four ingredients, one of which is the sardine.
NURI Sardines in Tomato Sauce are the tin for everyone who finds sardines in oil a bit too fishy. The tomato takes the edge off the sardine and adds sweetness and acidity – and suddenly, even those who usually push their plate away at the sight of sardines in oil are tucking in. For us, this is the variety we recommend to families – and the one many customers start with when it comes to NURI.
Tomaty, rounded, with fish underneath
The sauce is thick and dark red, more tomato paste than liquid sauce. It tastes of cooked-down tomato, slightly sweet, slightly acidic, and it coats the fish rather than drowning it. The sardines underneath are the same as those in the oil tin: whole, headless, with skin and soft bones, firm and juicy. The olive oil is used sparingly at two percent – it rounds off the sauce while keeping the tin light.
Compared to the sardine in oil, the fish flavor is milder, but still present. The tomato is in the foreground, the sardine in the background, and anyone who knows this tin knows that this ratio is the reason why it is the most-eaten variety in many households.
For those who want the full sardine flavor, the tomato tin is less suitable; the sardines in olive oil are the better choice. And those who want tomato with a kick will find it in the sardines in spicy tomato sauce.
On bread, on toast, in pasta – and for the children
The tomato sardine brings its own acidity. Bread, butter, sardine with sauce, pepper – supper is served. On toasted white bread, lightly crushed with a fork, it is the Portuguese counterpart to beans on toast, and just as quick.
When warmed up, the tomato tin makes the simplest pasta sauce there is. Put the tin in a pan, heat with a little olive oil and garlic, flake the sardines, add pasta and parsley, and it's ready – one tin is enough for two portions of spaghetti. With rice and peas, it becomes a lunch; on baked potatoes with sour cream, it’s a dinner. And for children, the sardine in tomato is the tin many parents start with: the fish is soft, the sauce tastes like ketchup, and the bones are so tender that no one notices them.
For weekend breakfast, the tomato tin is what’s put on the table in Portugal when guests are over: on toasted bread with a fried egg on top, pepper, chives. And for the lunchbox, it works as a spread: mash the sardines and sauce with a fork, mix with a little butter, spread on bread – a snack that tastes like tomato instead of a tin.
What doesn't work: cooking the sardines for a long time. They will fall apart, and the sauce will become thin. Just heat them through, don't cook them.
Our tip: Mix the sauce from the tin with a spoonful of cream cheese and fold in the crushed sardines – it makes a spread that children will eat as tomato cream.
Tomato and sardine from Matosinhos, by hand since 1920
NURI is produced by Pinhais & C.ª in Matosinhos, Porto’s fishing port, 500 meters from the Atlantic. The factory has been working with the same process since 1920: only fresh fish, placed in brine, hand-arranged on racks, steam-cooked, and then individually hand-placed into the tin. For the tomato variety, tomato sauce is poured in instead of olive oil – tomato paste, a little olive oil, salt. The label is so short because the ingredient list is so short.
Sardines in tomato are a second classic variety in Portugal alongside the oil version, rather than an invention for export – in every Portuguese supermarket, both stand side by side, and at NURI, both are part of the core range. In the end, the tomato tin is also wrapped by hand in paper, the design of which dates back to the 1930s.
The tins arrive in Germany via the importer Maritime Zeitkapseln from Hanau. For us, the tomato tin is one of the four classics that are also included in the gift box – along with the mild, the spicy, and the spicy tomato sardine.
The family tin – for the cupboard and for beginners
The tomato sardine is the tin for your pantry: a dinner that brings everything with it except for bread or pasta, and that keeps in the cupboard for years. It is the tin for the evening when the kids are hungry and the fridge is empty. And it is the tin you use to introduce someone to sardines who previously only knew tuna.
As a gift, it is included with the mild sardine in oil, the spicy sardine in oil, and the spicy sardine in tomato in the Sardine Gift – 4-pack box. If you want to see all varieties, you can find them on our NURI page.
The tomato tin is not suitable for salads with oil dressing – the sauce mixes in, and both lose out. The sardines in oil are the right choice for that. And if you are planning the tin as a sauce for four people, you will need two.
Whole sardines in tomato sauce from Matosinhos – the tin that even fish skeptics at the table will eat.
