Pasta con le sarde

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.