Pasta con le sarde
Palermo sardine pasta with wild fennel, raisins, and pine nuts
The first scent is fennel, not fish. Its wild green leaves go into the cooking water, then into a sauce where fresh sardines break into soft flakes among raisins and pine nuts. A little saffron turns the juices gold. The toasted crumbs on top give each forkful its final, dry crunch.
Palermo's pasta con le sarde depends on the difference between two small fish. Fresh sardines give the sauce its body; a few cured anchovies melt into the onion and season it from underneath. The raisins should register as occasional sweetness, never as a sugary sauce. Wild fennel is essential here: the sweet white bulb sold simply as fennel in American markets cannot supply its aroma.
This is a direct, sauced bucatini rather than the baked version also made in Palermo. Keep some fennel water for loosening the sauce and finish the pasta while it still has bite. The crumbs belong on the plate at the last moment, where they stay crisp.
Ingredients
For the sauce
- 500 g(about 1.1 lb)whole fresh sardines, cleaned, filleted, and thoroughly deboned; about 300 g prepared fish (see note)
- 250 gfresh wild fennel (finocchietto selvatico), tender shoots and leaves, tough stalks discarded (see note)
- 150 gyellow onion, finely chopped
- 3salt-cured anchovy fillets, rinsed, deboned, and chopped (see note)
- 25 gsmall dark raisins, preferably uva passolina, soaked in warm water and drained
- 25 gpine nuts
- 0.15 gsaffron threads
- 60 ml(¼ cup)extra-virgin olive oil
- fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the pasta and finish
- 400 gdried bucatini
- 60 gplain coarse breadcrumbs from stale bread, not seasoned crumbs
Kitchen notes
- Fresh sardines and cured anchovies
- Sarde are fresh sardines, not anchovies. Both fish belong in this recipe, in different roles: sardines make the sauce, while cured anchovies dissolve into its base. Canned sardines do not give the same texture. Ask a fishmonger to clean the fresh sardines, then check the fillets for bones yourself.
- Wild fennel
- Finocchietto selvatico is a strongly aromatic leafy herb, not the white bulb of Florence fennel and not dried fennel seed. The tender leaves and shoots flavor both sauce and pasta water. Seek it seasonally at an Italian market or a grower who can identify it; this recipe offers no bulb-fennel shortcut.
- Uva passolina
- These are small dark dried grapes, akin to currants, rather than large golden raisins. If buying them loose, check that they are dried grapes and not dried blackcurrant berries.
Method
Cook the fennel
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Wash the wild fennel well, strip away the woody stems, and boil the tender shoots and leaves for 12–15 minutes, until soft. Lift it out, squeeze lightly, and chop it into short pieces. Keep all the fennel-scented water for the pasta and sauce. Steep the saffron in about 60 ml (¼ cup) of that hot water.
Build the sauce
- Warm 45 ml (3 tbsp) of the olive oil in a wide pan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and pale gold, about 8–10 minutes. Add the anchovies and stir until they dissolve. Add the sardines in a single layer; turn gently for 2–3 minutes, until their flesh starts to turn opaque. Add the drained raisins, pine nuts, chopped fennel, and saffron water. Simmer gently for about 8 minutes, adding small ladles of fennel water as needed. The fish should be cooked through and partly flaked, but the sauce should remain loose rather than dry. Taste before adding salt; the anchovies have already seasoned it.
Toast the crumbs
- While the sauce simmers, warm the remaining 15 ml (1 tbsp) olive oil in a small skillet. Add the breadcrumbs and stir over medium heat until evenly golden and crisp, about 4–5 minutes. Tip them onto a plate so they stop browning.
Finish the bucatini
- Bring the fennel water back to a boil, topping it up if needed. Cook the bucatini until just shy of al dente. Transfer it to the sauce with tongs or drain it, reserving a mug of the water. Toss over medium heat for 1–2 minutes, adding fennel water a spoonful at a time until the pasta is coated and the sauce slips between the strands. Season with black pepper. Serve at once, scattering the toasted crumbs over each portion only at the table.