Name: Pasta con le sarde (Pasta with fresh sardines)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 350/12 oz rigatoni or penne; 50 g/1¾ oz/⅓ cup sultanas (golden raisins); 5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for the dish; 50 g/1¾ oz/⅓ cup pine nuts; 75 g/2¾ oz fennel leaf tops (the feathery fronds); salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 salted anchovies, cleaned and rinsed, or 4 anchovy fillets, drained; 1 onion, very finely sliced; 1 tsp fennel seeds; 500 g/1 lb 2 oz fresh sardines, filleted

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Anna Del Conte on Pasta

By Anna Del Conte

Published 2015

About

This is one of the greatest combinations of pasta and fish. It comes from Sicily, as do many of the best pasta dishes. In Sicily the sauce is made with wild fennel, which is slightly different from cultivated fennel bulb and has thick and plentiful fronds and a stronger flavour. If you cannot get enough of the feathery leaf tops from fennel bulb, make up the weight with very finely sliced fennel bulb mixed with some flat-leaf parsley.