Pasta Con Le Sarde

Pasta con le sarde - Pasta with Sardines - is a classic Sicilian dish made with fresh sardines, fennel, onion, pine nuts, golden raisins and toasted bread crumbs. If you really want to get hardcore, add a few anchovy filets, a tin of sardines and some ground fennel seeds to the sauce!  We do. The pasta of choice is bucatini, which is dressed with the sauce then served with a good sprinkling of seasoned homemade bread crumbs and topped with a pan fried sardine. Yes, there are some strong flavors but don't let that scare you, just jump right in. This is one very tasty seafood dish and perfect for Christmas Eve!

Note: If you haven't had them, fresh sardines are a light sweet buttery fish, similar, in my opinion, to trout which you could substitute here if you can't get fresh sardines.

Ingredients (for 2)

1 Fennel bulb, diced - reserve the tops

1 medium onion diced

1 clove garlic, minced

2 fresh or frozen whole sardines, cleaned and bones removed

1 4 oz tin whole sardines in olive oil, drained and coarsely chopped

3 tbsp pine nuts, toasted

1/4 cup golden raisins chopped
I teaspoon ground fennel seeds 
2 anchovy filets in oil - optional

1 large pinch of saffron, soaked in 2 tbsp white wine

1/2 box of bucatini pasta, if you can't find it, substitute with spaghetti
1 cup milk
Flour to coat the sardines for frying
Olive Oil as needed
Salt and pepper - taste along the way for seasoning. But go easy on the salt, this dish has a good amount in the ingredients
White wine - Pinot Grigio, Soave or Sauvignon Blanc

Directions

Clean the fresh sardines -

Rosetta Costantino's web site http://cookingwithrosetta.com/ 
Rosetta shows how to clean fresh anchovies. Use the same technique for sardines -

Open each one out flat and pull out the central bones along with the head.  Wash and shake dry then soak in a bowl of milk.

Note: If you can't find fresh or frozen whole sardines, use trout filets and pan fry as with the sardines.

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. Make about two cups.

Start the pasta water to boil at some point during the steps below -

Wipe the pan clean and 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 and anchovies - stir for 2 minutes.

Add saffron with the wine it was soaking in and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

Stir in the raisins.

Add the canned sardines and break up with a wooden spoon 

Add ½ cup hot water from the pasta pot and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a separate pan heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Remove the sardines from the milk and dredge them in seasoned flour, shaking off excess. Cook, turning halfway, for 3 minutes or until crisp and golden. Set aside.

The pasta water should be boiling by now so add a tablespoon of salt and the bucatini. Dip out and save a cup of pasta water. 

When the pasta is almost done, add it to the pan with the sauce and stir through adding the pine nuts and the fennel fronds. Use the saved pasta water as needed to the sauce if it seems too dry.

Serve on plates and top with the bread crumbs and the fried sardines.

Drizzle each serving with a little olive oil.

Here a couple videos showing variations of this dish -