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Pasta con le sarde
Pasta con le sarde: Palermo's sardine, wild fennel, raisin and pine nut pasta
Sweet, salty and grassy all at once, Palermo's favourite pasta carries the island's history in one pan: Arab raisins, pine nuts and saffron meet fresh sardines and the wild fennel that grows on every Sicilian hillside in spring. It is cooked at home and in the city's old trattorie from March to the start of summer, and on 19 March for the feast of San Giuseppe. Instead of cheese, it is finished with olive oil toasted breadcrumbs, the crunchy 'muddica' that Sicilians call poor man's parmesan. Wild fennel is hard to find outside Italy; the fronds from two fennel bulbs plus a few fennel seeds come close. Serve it warm, or at room temperature as Palermitans often do. Chef's tip: blanch the fennel greens in the pasta pot first and cook the bucatini in that same green, aniseed-scented water, so the flavour runs right through the pasta.
- Total time
- 45 min
- Difficulty
- medium
- Serves
- 4
Ingredients
For the sauce
For the pasta and topping
Method
0/10 doneStep 1: Bring 4 litres of water to the boil and add 1 tbsp salt. Add 5 ½ oz wild fennel fronds and cook for 10 minutes, until tender. Lift it out with a slotted spoon and squeeze dry; keep the pot of green water on the heat for the pasta.
10 minStep 2: Chop the fennel finely. If you are using bulb fronds, crush ½ tsp fennel seeds and mix them in.
Step 3: Toast 2 ⅛ oz dried breadcrumbs with 1 tablespoon of 1 ¼ tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a dry frying pan over a medium heat, stirring all the time, until golden and crisp. Tip into a bowl.
4 minStep 4: Wipe the pan, add the rest of 4 ¾ tbsp extra virgin olive oil and soften 1 onion over a medium-low heat until translucent and sweet.
7 minStep 5: Add 4 anchovy fillets in oil and stir until they melt into the oil. Stir in 1 oz raisins, 1 oz pine nuts and 1 pinch saffron threads with its water.
Step 6: Cut half the 7 oz fresh sardines into pieces and add them to the pan. Cook over a medium heat, breaking them up with a wooden spoon, until opaque and flaking.
4 minStep 7: Add the chopped fennel and a ladle of the fennel water and simmer gently until the sauce is thick and fragrant. Season with ¼ tsp black pepper.
5 minStep 8: Meanwhile cook 14 oz bucatini in the fennel water until al dente. Lay the remaining 7 oz fresh sardines skin-side up on top of the sauce, cover the pan and cook over a low heat until they are opaque all the way through and flake easily (145°F).
10 minStep 9: Drain the pasta, keeping a little water, and gently fold it through the sauce, lifting the whole fillets to the top. Loosen with a splash of fennel water if dry.
Step 10: Serve scattered with the toasted breadcrumbs, warm or at room temperature.
Nutrition per serving
- Calories
- 720 kcal
- Protein
- 33 g
- Carbs
- 90 g
- Fat
- 26 g
- Fibre
- 6 g
Nutrition values are estimates.
KrazyBadal
Good to know
- How long does pasta con le sarde take?
- About 45 minutes in total: 20 minutes to prepare and 25 minutes to cook.
- How many people does it serve?
- 4 as written. Change the servings above the ingredients and every amount scales to match.
- What can I use instead of fennel seeds?
- Aniseeds, same amount (a stronger liquorice taste).
- What can I use instead of onion?
- 2 shallots per onion.
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