Pasta con le Sarde (pescatarian, dairy-free)

Reiko Okazaki
Feb 25, 2023
4 min read

Updated: Mar 30, 2023

This was the first pasta dish that Alberto and I sought out when we visited Palermo. Pasta con le Sarde brings together the wild fennel and fresh sardines abundant on the Sicilian island, as well as the historical Spanish and Arab influences through the saffron and pine nuts. It offers a complex medley of salt, acidity, healthy fats and a hint of sweetness.

Although his paternal family are from Sicily, Alberto grew up in Sondrio, in the province of Lombardy (where Milan is located, but he is even further north than Lake Como, toward the Swiss border). The pasta dishes there couldn’t be more different, using buckwheat, cheese and butter instead of fish, chilli and tomato (recipes to come). The regional variety in Italian recipes is astounding and we hope to contribute to the preservation of these traditions.

As with most if not all of the recipes we selected for this first instalment, this is an economical dish, true to its origins. We actually have some rogue fennel sprouting in our garden, which provide a constant source of leafy tops, but if you’ve bought a bulb of fennel for other uses, well, I can't think of a better way of utilising those fronds.

Ingredients

Serves 2

200 g (whole) fresh sardines, or 125 g tinned sardine/ mackerel fillets (90 g drained), de-boned if necessary

100 g fresh fennel tops (separate the fronds from the stalk and roughly chop the fronds)

60 ml extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 white onion or ¼ fennel bulb, chopped

3 flat anchovy fillets, de-boned if necessary and finely chopped

10 g dried black currants (alternatively, sultanas, soaked, drained and chopped)

10 g tomato concentrate dissolved in 100 ml water with a pinch of crumbled saffron threads (or saffron powder)

15 g coarse breadcrumbs

15 g pine nuts

200 g bucatini or spaghetti

5 g salt (for cooking the pasta)

Ground black pepper

Method

*If using fresh sardines, clean them (or ask your fishmonger to fillet them).
In a large frying pan, lightly toast the pine nuts. Set them aside, then toast the breadcrumbs with a bit of olive oil. Set aside.
Once the pan is clear of breadcrumbs, heat the remaining olive oil over medium heat. Cook the onion until it becomes translucent. Add the anchovies, mashing them over low heat.
Once the anchovies have dissolved into a paste, return the pan to medium heat, Add the currants plus the tomato and saffron solution to the pan, with a few grinds of black pepper.
Add the chopped fennel fronds and continue to cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the liquid bubbles away.
*If using fresh sardines, make some space in the pan and cook each side of the fish fillet. If using tinned fish, add them at the end of this step, then remove the pan from the heat.
Bring at least 2 litres of water to the boil in a large pot and add salt just as the water comes to the boil. You will need less salt if using tinned fish as opposed to fresh. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook according to the packet instructions. The fennel stalks can be added to the pasta water to impart flavour, as long as you remove and discard them when draining the pasta.
Toss the cooked, drained pasta through the fish ragú so that the pasta is coated with sauce.
Transfer to the serving platter and top with the pine nuts and breadcrumbs. Serve immediately.

Notes

Not only are sardines sustainable, affordable and tasty, but they also contain one of the highest levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and lowest levels of mercury compared to other fish. They are a great source of protein, calcium and Vitamin D as well. Although there is no question that fresh sardines taste best, the theme here is pantry cooking. Delicate and fleshy, gourmet tinned sardines are the next best thing. In terms of supermarket quality-cans, I prefer mackerel fillets in brine over sardines as I find the former plumper and juicier.
Anchovies are preserved in olive oil, or dry-cured in salt, in which case you will need to rinse and remove the spine. Otherwise, you can substitute a dash of fish sauce– a liquid condiment made from salted and fermented fish and/ or krill, widely used throughout Southeast Asia. In a pinch, quality olives (chopped) or capers could work too.

The original recipe calls for wild fennel, which peaks in Sicily in the springtime (this dish is often eaten on Good Friday). Because the tops of cultivated fennel are not as strong in taste, you could grind some fennel seeds into the sauce for some extra anise-licorice aromas.
If using sultanas or raisins instead of currants, make sure to change the water a few times when soaking, in order to get rid of the excess sugar.
Breadcrumbs have historically been used as the poor man’s parmesan. You can make your own by grating stale bread or blitzing in a food processor.
Because freshness is key for olive oil, it’s not necessarily better if it comes from the Mediterranean– as long as the purity of the process is guaranteed, locally pressed oils can trump certain European ones that are mass-produced for export. As with any oil, it is important to be mindful of the smoke point so that the oil doesn’t burn.
If you cook a generous batch of the fish ragú, it can be frozen after Step 6 for a quick meal at a later date. We store plain breadcrumbs and pine nuts in the freezer anyway, so we just need to prepare the toppings per Step 2 and everything comes together in the time it takes to boil the pasta.