Pasta con le Sarde

Sardines with wild fennel, raisins and saffron, the pasta cooked in the fennel water.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 400 g bucatini
• 600 g fresh sardines, filleted
• 300 g wild fennel fronds
• 1 onion, chopped
• 60 g raisins, soaked
• 50 g pine nuts
• 4 salted anchovies, rinsed
• a good pinch of saffron
• 80 g coarse breadcrumbs, toasted dry
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

Method

1. WILD FENNEL, NOT THE BULB. The fronds of the wild plant are what this dish is built on, and bulb fennel is a different vegetable with a different flavour. Fennel seed is not a substitute either.
2. Boil the fronds in salted water for 10 minutes, lift them out, and KEEP THE WATER — the pasta cooks in it later and takes the flavour right through. Chop the drained fronds.
3. Soften the onion in the oil, melt the anchovies into it, then add the drained raisins and pine nuts.
4. Steep the saffron in a little hot fennel water and add it.
5. Add the chopped fennel and half the sardine fillets and cook 10 minutes, crushing those fillets so they dissolve into the sauce.
6. Lay the remaining fillets on top whole and cook 4 minutes more without stirring, so some sardine stays recognisable.
7. Cook the pasta in the fennel water, combine, and scatter the toasted breadcrumbs at the table. No cheese.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes