Pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines) is a classic southern Italian dish. The ingredients typically include sardines, fennel, raisins and pine nuts. The pasta of choice is bucatini, a thick spaghetti-like pasta with a hole running through the center. The whole thing is topped with toasted bread crumbs and fennel fronds - yeah, tha's right!
Instead of bucatini, our version uses fileja, a pasta home to the region of Calabria, Italy where many of my ancestors were from. Fileja is made by rolling a marble sized piece of pasta dough around a steel or wood rod as in the photo below. It is a wonderful thick chewy pasta that goes with all kinds of sauces. It's our favorite go-to homemade pasta. So easy to make by hand, and you don't need a pasta rolling machine. See this link on how to make it at home - How to make fileja pasta
In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil (add more if needed) over medium heat. Add fennel and onion and cook, stirring, for about 15 minutes or until softened and slightly caramelized.
Add garlic and stir for 2 minutes.
Add saffron with soaking liquid and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
Stir in the raisins.
Add the canned sardines.
Add ½ cup warm water and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
When the pasta is al dente, drain and add to the sardine fennel sauce. Stir together.
When the pasta is al dente, drain and add to the sardine fennel sauce. Stir together.
Make bread crumbs from good crusty country bread in a food processor to a coarse texture. Then toast in a frying pan with olive oil and a little salt and pepper. Make about two cups.
Here is a video by chef John that we based our version on -
ENJOY!!!
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