Sicilian Pasta Con Le Sarde is a traditional Italian pasta dish that boasts a symphony of flavors, textures, and colors. Originating from the vibrant streets of Palermo, this dish is a testament to the culinary artistry of Sicily. At its core lies the harmonious blend of fresh sardines, plump raisins, crunchy fennel, and aromatic saffron, all enveloped in a rich tomato sauce. The sweetness of the raisins and the subtle anise flavor of fennel provide delightful counterpoints to the savory sardines, while the saffron lends an exquisite golden hue and a hint of earthy elegance. This delectable dish is typically served with busiate, a long, twisted pasta that perfectly captures the vibrant sauce, creating a textural masterpiece. In this article, we present two variations of this classic recipe that showcase the versatility and creativity of Sicilian cuisine: the traditional Pasta Con Le Sarde and a unique vegetarian version that substitutes sardines with briny capers and succulent sun-dried tomatoes. Both recipes promise an unforgettable culinary journey, immersing you in the vibrant flavors of Sicily.
Let's cook with our recipes!
PASTA CON LE SARDE
When the photographer and filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg brought this recipe to The Times in 2008, he described it as "a perfectly balanced combination of sardines, fennel, currants and bread crumbs." Adapted from Gusto in Greenwich Village, this seafood pasta needs no cheese: The saltiness and bite from the sardines and the sautéed vegetables should be more than enough.
Provided by Robert Trachtenberg
Categories dinner, pastas, main course
Time 1h
Yield Serves 4
Number Of Ingredients 16
Steps:
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Combine the currants, red-pepper flakes and wine in a bowl; set aside. In a small sauté pan, melt the butter. Add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring, until golden brown. Transfer to a bowl, stir in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and set aside.
- In a heavy skillet, heat 1/2 cup olive oil over medium-low heat. When hot, add the onion, garlic, fennel bulb and fennel seeds. Season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the fennel is tender, about 25 minutes.
- Add the wine mixture and the sardines, breaking them into pieces with a fork. Bring to a boil and gently simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add enough salt to the boiling water so that it tastes salty. Boil the bucatini until al dente, 6 to 8 minutes; strain. Return the pasta to the pasta pot and set over low heat. Fold in the fennel-sardine mixture. Toss in the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil. Add 3/4 of the fennel fronds, the pine nuts, the capers and a quarter of the bread crumbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Divide pasta among plates and sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs and fennel fronds over each. Serve immediately.
CHEF JOHN'S PASTA CON LE SARDE
I'm no survivalist, but like any responsible chef I like to have a few cans of sardines stocked away, just in case. If times ever get tough, I could survive for hours, maybe days on them; but since things are going pretty well, I decided to dust off a can, and show you my version of Sicily's famous pasta con le sarde. You can substitute thick spaghetti for the bucatini, if desired.
Provided by Chef John
Categories World Cuisine Recipes European Italian
Time 1h
Yield 4
Number Of Ingredients 15
Steps:
- 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.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook bucatini in boiling water, stirring occasionally until almost cooked through but firm to the bite, 10 to 11 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the pasta water.
- Heat remaining olive oil in large skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir onion and fennel with a pinch of salt in hot oil until onion is soft, about 10 minutes.
- Stir raisins, garlic, and anchovy fillet into onion mixture; cook and stir until heated through, about 1 minute.
- Pour saffron-wine into skillet; cook until wine is almost evaporated, about 2 minutes. Pour 1 ladleful 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.
- Stir 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. Remove from heat. Ladle into bowls and top with fennel fronds and toasted bread crumbs.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 708.8 calories, Carbohydrate 72.2 g, Cholesterol 81.4 mg, Fat 33.3 g, Fiber 4.6 g, Protein 27.5 g, SaturatedFat 4.8 g, Sodium 531.8 mg, Sugar 8.9 g
PASTA CON LE SARDE (SICILIAN PASTA WITH SARDINES) RECIPE
A classic pasta from Palermo in Siciliy, pasta con le sarde (pasta with sardines) is unlike just about any other Italian pasta dish. Heavily influenced by the cooking of Arabs that ruled Sicily more than a thousand years ago, it features long bucatini or spaghetti in a slick, luscious, and fragrant sauce made from onions, fennel, raisins, pine nuts, anchovies, sardines, and saffron. Instead of cheese, toasted and seasoned bread crumbs grace the plate.
Provided by Daniel Gritzer
Categories Mains Quick Dinners
Time 35m
Yield 4
Number Of Ingredients 13
Steps:
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Mince half the fennel fronds and reserve the other half whole.
- Add pine nuts and sardines and cook, stirring, until sardines are just barely cooked through, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta until al dente, then drain, reserving at least 1 cup pasta cooking water.
- Transfer pasta to skillet along with 1/4 cup pasta cooking water. Return skillet to medium-high heat and cook, stirring and tossing, until pasta is well coated in sauce and any excess liquid has cooked off. Drizzle on some fresh olive oil (don't be shy) along with the minced fennel fronds, and toss well. Season with salt. Add a very small handful of bread crumbs and toss once more.
- If at any point the pasta becomes too dry, add additional pasta cooking water in 1/4-cup increments, and toss to loosen and moisten (you can also drizzle on more olive oil as desired). The noodles should be slick and glossy with a sheen of sauce, but not sitting in a watery puddle.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 749 kcal, Carbohydrate 59 g, Cholesterol 146 mg, Fiber 6 g, Protein 38 g, SaturatedFat 6 g, Sodium 720 mg, Sugar 13 g, Fat 40 g, ServingSize Serves 4, UnsaturatedFat 0 g
PASTA CON LE SARDE
Harvests from the great, silent fields of sun-bronzed wheat result in more bread than pasta for la tavola siciliana, yet there is a trio of pasta dishes that is cooked throughout the island. One of them dresses pasta in eggplant and tomatoes perfumed with wild mint and basil, the whole dusted with grated, salted ewe's milk ricotta. Called often pasta alla Norma in celebration of Catanian son Vincenzo Bellini it can be a gorgeous dish. Then there is pasta chi vrocculi arriminati-dialect for a dish that calls for a paste of cauliflower and salt anchovies studded with raisins and pine nuts. Although it is luscious, it cannot compete with the glories of the island's pasta con le sarde. A dish full of extravagant Arab timbres, it employs fresh, sweet sardines, salt anchovies, wild fennel, and a splash of saffroned tomato. One presents the pasta cool, as though heat would be violence against its sensuousness. Wild fennel grows abundantly on the lower shanks of Sicily's mountains and, too, along the craggy paths of some of her islands. I used to collect wild fennel along the banks of the Sacramento River and I've heard tell of great clumps of its yellow lace heads bobbing along country roads in America's Northeast. Now I find it a few kilometers from our home in thickets against the pasture fences along the Via Cassia on the road to Rome. Though the scent and the savor of cultivated fennel is sweeter, it behaves well in collaboration with these other elements and yields a still-sumptuous dish.
Yield serves 6
Number Of Ingredients 13
Steps:
- Coarsely chop the stalks of wild fennel with their flowers or the fronds and stalks of cultivated fennel. Place in a large saucepan, add 5 quarts of cold water, 1 tablespoon of the coarse sea salt, and bring to a simmer, poaching the fennel until the stalks are tender. Drain the fennel, reserving its cooking liquors and press it against the side of the pot to express all its liquid. Finely mince the poached fennel and set it aside.
- In a small sauté pan over a medium flame, pan-roast the pine nuts until quite brown and set aside. In a small sauté pan, pan-roast the saffron threads for 1 minute over a low flame. Add the 2 tablespoons of white wine, dissolving the threads in it and then mixing the saffroned wine with the remaining wine and the tomato puree. Rinse the anchovies of their salt, remove their heads and bones, and lightly dry them on absorbent paper towels, finally crushing them gently with a fork.
- In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil and lightly sauté the onion. Add the minced fennel and sauté for 1 minute. Add the crushed anchovies and the sardine fillets, rolling the fish about in the oil with the aromatics for 1/2 minute before adding the plumped raisins and their juices, 1/2 cup of the pine nuts, and the saffron/tomato mixture. Stir, amalgamating the elements and reducing the liquids so that a thick sauce results.
- Turn the sauce out into a bowl, permitting it to cool and its perfumes and flavors to rest and intensify. Never refrigerate the sauce.
- Just before serving, cook the pasta to al dente in the reserved fennel-poaching water, adding 1 additional tablespoon of coarse sea salt. Drain the pasta, leaving it somewhat wet, and dress the hot pasta with the sauce, carefully coating each strand.
- Serve the pasta in shallow bowls, strewing it with the remaining pine nuts and a dusting of bread crumbs. In high summer, we might sip iced moscato with the pasta, but in cooler weather, a rough, tannic red seems right.
PASTA CON SARDE (PASTA WITH SARDINES)
This dish is super fast and easy, made from a recipe that has been passed down from relatives in Italy. The leftovers taste great cold, too!
Provided by Mama Adg
Categories World Cuisine Recipes European Italian
Time 25m
Yield 4
Number Of Ingredients 9
Steps:
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti, and cook until al dente, or 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, and rinse under cold water. Toss with 1/4 cup olive oil, cover and keep warm.
- Place another 1/4 cup olive oil in a skillet, and heat over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, and cook just until golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the sardines, and cook 1 minute more. Stir in the bread crumbs and 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese. If necessary to give the mixture a crumbly texture, stir in the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil. Stir in the parsley and pepper, and remove from the heat. If desired, serve with additional Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 1045.6 calories, Carbohydrate 106.5 g, Cholesterol 86.9 mg, Fat 52.4 g, Fiber 5.4 g, Protein 35.9 g, SaturatedFat 8.4 g, Sodium 930.4 mg, Sugar 4.9 g
IANA'S PASTA CON LE SARDE
A traditional Sicilian pasta recipe with a tomato-based sauce, sardines, and fennel. Credit goes to Iana, a special lady who lived near Castello a Mare.
Provided by FredWilliams
Categories Italian Recipes
Time 45m
Yield 8
Number Of Ingredients 18
Steps:
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add fennel bulb, fronds, and onion. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add garlic; cook for 1 minute. Add sardines with oil; stir until crumbled. Stir in raisins, pine nuts, basil, fennel seeds, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes; cook until toasted. Pour in tomatoes. Let sauce simmer.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti in the boiling water, stirring occasionally, until tender yet firm to the bite, about 12 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in another pan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add bread crumbs and basil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Drain pasta; serve topped with the sauce, seasoned bread crumbs, and Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 467.6 calories, Carbohydrate 68.5 g, Cholesterol 45.8 mg, Fat 13.1 g, Fiber 6 g, Protein 20.7 g, SaturatedFat 2 g, Sodium 438.9 mg, Sugar 6.7 g
Tips:
- Use the freshest ingredients possible. This will make a big difference in the flavor of your dish.
- Don't be afraid to experiment. There are many different variations of pasta con le sarde, so feel free to add your own personal touch.
- Serve with a side of crusty bread. This will help you soak up all the delicious sauce.
- Garnish with fresh herbs, such as parsley or basil. This will add a pop of color and flavor to your dish.
- Enjoy! Pasta con le sarde is a delicious and versatile dish that is sure to please everyone at your table.
Conclusion:
Pasta con le sarde is a classic Italian dish that is made with pasta, sardines, and a variety of other ingredients. It is a delicious and versatile dish that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. Whether you are a fan of seafood or not, you are sure to enjoy this dish. So next time you are looking for a new pasta recipe to try, give pasta con le sarde a try. You won't be disappointed.
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