Pasta Con Le Sarde (Sicilian Pasta with Sardines)

*Updated cooking method (again) 3/30/2020

Sicily, where my family is from, is a land of conquests. The Moors, the Romans, Berbers, Arabs, Persians, Byzantines - pretty much everybody has tromped through Sicily at some point in time, and has left some kind of mark on the people and the food. I believe that pasta con le sarde, a traditional Sicilian dish featuring sardines and pasta tossed with unheard-of flavor combinations, is one such example of what happens when you get such a diverse international palate influencing a cuisine. In this case, it's a Mediterranean cuisine, meaning you get to take fish and try to mix a bunch of flavors together. If you've ever experimented with cooking fish, you know that random flavors can often ruin a fish dish. I couldn't name any other dish that would combine raisins, saffron, fennel, and two kinds of salty preserved fish, but somehow this mix creates an incredible burst of salty and sweet, lightly perfumed, slightly floral, bizarrely colorful, and both crunchy and velvety from the mix of fried bread crumbs and silky pasta that's tossed quickly with its own cooking liquid. The closest thing I can think of to this dish would be a massaman curry, drawing again from influences of the Muslim / western world to work this into the existing (Thai) culture. But in many ways, this dish stands completely alone, and for that I have deep respect in a sea of pasta dishes that is Italian food.

Drawing from a rich supply of fresh fish, this recipe is probably spectacular with fresh sardines caught that day. But since most of us can't get that, I recommend that you invest in a couple of tins of very high quality sardines packed in olive oil. Tonight we used some from Portugal, and at $4-5 per box, it was totally worth it. Even if you don't splurge, at least be sure to get fish in pure olive oil, not a tomato sauce or water.

The dish traditionally calls for bucatini - a thin tube-like pasta - but we've done it both with this and with pappardelle. Both versions are shown in the photographs. I would strongly recommend a bronze die-cut bucatini as the pasta of choice, though, which will hold the sauce best.

Bulb on the left, stalks on the right

Prepared 3/30/2020 with homemade bucatini on our KitchenAid pasta extruder. Tasted okay, though we sill prefer a high quality dried bucatini.

Pasta Con Le Sarde
Recipe pulled together from Jamie Oliver, Mario Batali, NY Times, and multiple iterations at home

• 3/4 cup dry coarse bread crumbs, or diced bread
• 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 pinch saffron
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 1/2 pound bucatini pasta
• 1 cup diced yellow onion
• 1 medium / 3 baby fennel bulb(s), small fronds set aside as garnish, stalks chopped, bulbs quartered
• salt to taste
• 1/4 cup currants, or golden raisins for a less sweet flavor
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 anchovy fillet
• 2 (4 ounce) cans sardines packed in oil, drained and crumbled
• 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 3 tablespoons chopped fennel fronds, or more to taste

Start boiling a large pot of at least 6 quarts of water, then prepare your vegetables.

Cook and stir bread crumbs with 2 tablespoons olive oil in a skillet over medium heat until bread crumbs are crispy and toasted, 2 to 5 minutes. Transfer breadcrumbs to a bowl to cool.

Grind saffron threads with a mortar and pestle; pour white wine into mortar and stir to combine. Soak currants / raisins in this mix.

Salt the boiling water. Cook fennel bulbs in boiling water for 8-10 minutes until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon, cool, and chop while you are working on the next steps.

Once the fennel bulbs are boiling, heat remaining olive oil in large skillet over medium heat and add onion and the chopped fennel stalks. Cook and stir onion and fennel with a pinch of salt in hot oil until onion is soft and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.

Cook the bucatini in boiling water used for fennel bulbs, stirring occasionally until almost cooked through but firm to the bite, 10 to 11 minutes. Drain, reserving 2 cups of the pasta water.

Stir raisins, garlic, chopped fennel, saffron-wine mix, and anchovy fillet into onion mixture. Cook until wine is almost evaporated, about 2 minutes. Pour 1/2-3/4 cup reserved pasta water into skillet and bring to a simmer. Stir pine nuts and red pepper flakes into sauce; simmer until flavors combine and sauce is reduced, about 5 minutes.

Lightly toss bucatini and sardines into wine mixture; increase heat to high, and cook, stirring frequently and adding more reserved pasta water as necessary, until sauce and pasta are heated through, about 5 minutes or less. Remove from heat. Ladle into bowls and top with fennel fronds and toasted bread crumbs.