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Pasta con le Sarde (Sicilian Pasta with Sardines)
Pasta con le Sarde is one of the most famous dishes from Sicilian cuisine. This traditional recipe combines the fresh taste of the sea with the aromatic flavors of the Sicilian countryside. Made with simple ingredients like fresh sardines, wild fennel, raisins, pine nuts, and breadcrumbs, it’s a true expression of Sicily on a plate.
Ingredients
- 350 g spaghettoni (thick spaghetti) or bucatini - 12 oz
- 250 g fresh sardines - 9 oz, cleaned and deboned
- 200 g wild fennel - 7 oz, if unavailable, substitute with fennel tops and a small pinch (less than 1 teaspoon) of fennel seeds.
- 1 small white onion
- 50 g raisins - 5 tablespoons
- 30 g pine nuts - 4 tablespoons
- 30 g almonds - 3 tablespoons
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 0.15 g saffron
- 150 g breadcrumbs - 1 ½ cups
- black pepper - to taste
- salt - to taste
Instructions
- Boil the wild fennel. When the water boils, toss in the wild fennel - or fennel tops - and cook them over medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Once cooked, drain and chop them on a cutting board. Keep aside. Save the boiling water from the fennel.
- Soak the raisins in a small bowl of warm water. Keep aside. Then, on a cutting board, chop the onion quite finely and keep aside as well.
- Using an electric mixer, chop the almonds. It's not necessary to grind them into a powder, just chop them coarsely.
- Clean the sardines thoroughly. If your sardines are already cleaned, skip this step. Remove the head, tail, dorsal fin, guts and center bone.
- Finally, rinse them quickly under running water and dry them with paper towels. Arrange them on a plate and keep them aside.
- In a skillet, sauté the onion in extra virgin olive oil.
- Then add chopped fennel (and fennel seeds if you do not have wild fennel), raisins (squeezed out of water), chopped almonds and pine nuts and stir.
- Add a ladleful of the fennel cooking water and mix well. Let it cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat.
- Then dissolve the saffron in a tiny bit of water and add it to the sauce.
- Add the sardines. If they are large, cut them into pieces, otherwise put them whole.
- If necessary, add a little fennel cooking water so that the sardines turn out covered.
- Cook for about 5 or 6 minutes over medium heat. The sauce should be quite thick and the sardines not too flaky.
- Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary. Keep aside.
- Toast the breadcrumbs in a frying pan. Heat a 1 to 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan and add the breadcrumbs. Toast over medium heat.
- Stir continuously so that the bread does not burn but becomes golden and crispy. This will take about 5 minutes. Keep aside.
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the spaghettoni - or bucatini - following the cooking time described on the package.
- Drain the pasta 2 minutes before the end of cooking time. Place the pasta directly into the pan with the sauce.
- Add a drizzle of oil and, if the sardine sauce has thickened too much in the meantime, add some of the fennel cooking water. Cook for 2 minutes over high heat, stirring gently without letting the sardines flake.
- Serve the pasta hot with plenty of crunchy breadcrumbs.
Nutrition
Serving: 100gCalories: 837kcalCarbohydrates: 107gProtein: 35gFat: 30gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 9gMonounsaturated Fat: 14gTrans Fat: 0.003gCholesterol: 89mgSodium: 477mgPotassium: 760mgFiber: 7gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 70IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 357mgIron: 6mg
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