Pasta con le Sarde is one of Sicily’s most iconic dishes, a simple yet deeply expressive recipe that brings together sardines, fennel, and ingredients that reflect the island’s long and layered history.
**On my blog, there are numerous recipes for Pasta con le Sarde written over many years with many photographs and va. However, I have created a simpler recipe for those who prefer a quicker cooking method during the often busy Christmas season. I had also prepared this recipe for the SBS Italian radio session but there was no time to discuss it. (I always over prepare!) The Italian link to the recipe:PASTA CON LE SARDE, RICETTA SEMPLICE
Sardines are plentiful in Sicilian waters, wild fennel grows freely when in season, and flavours such as pine nuts, currants, and saffron speak clearly of the Arab influence that shaped so much of Sicilian cooking. The finishing touch, muddica atturrata — toasted breadcrumbs — replaces cheese and is unmistakably Sicilian.
I will most likely consider Pasta con le Sarde for the Festive Christmas period.
A Dish Rooted in Sicilian Tradition
This is a dish born of necessity and ingenuity. In Sicily, pasta is eaten almost daily, and pasta con le sarde has long been a way to transform humble, accessible ingredients into something memorable.
When wild fennel is unavailable, cultivated fennel works well. I use the bulb, the fronds, and sometimes a small amount of fennel seed to echo the aroma of the wild plant. Wild fennel is seasonal and in Sicily it is sold in bunches in markets. Sicilians would respect the seasonality of wild fennel and probably cook Pasta con le Sarde in the right seasons.
Bucatini is my preferred pasta shape, but spaghetti is equally suitable.
Bucatini con Sarde
Ingredients
500 g bucatini, preferred traditional pasta
700 g fresh sardines, cleaned and filleted
200 g wild fennel (or 2 large fennel bulb with fronds + 1 tsp fennel seeds)
Approximately 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 onions, finely sliced
4 anchovy fillets
1 cup pine nuts
1 cup toasted almonds, roughly chopped (optional)
¾ cup currants
½–1 tsp saffron
Salt and black pepper
***4–5 tbsp breadcrumbs, toasted in a frypan with little extra virgin oil. I like to add a pinch of sugar and cinnamon while it is toasting and some finely grated lemon peel.
Method (Simple)
1. Cook the fennel
Boil the wild fennel in salted water for 10–15 minutes. Reserve the fragrant green cooking water for the pasta. Drain, squeeze well, and finely chop.
If using cultivated fennel: Cut the bulb into quarters and boil with the fennel seeds. Save the fronds for later. If there are fennel stalks boil them as well to flavour the water. Remove the stalks and seeds (drain), chop the fennel, and reserve the water to cook the pasta.
2. Prepare the sauce
In a wide pan, gently cook the onions in the olive oil until soft and golden.
Add the anchovy fillets and stir until they dissolve, then the pine nuts, currants, and almonds (if using).
Add two-thirds of the sardines, roughly chopped, along with salt, pepper, and some fennel fronds (or a little of the chopped fennel). Cook gently for 5–10 minutes.
Stir in the cooked fennel and saffron dissolved in a little warm water.
3. Cook the pasta
Cook the bucatini in the reserved fennel water until al dente. Drain well.
4. Cook the remaining sardines
In a separate pan, lightly fry the remaining sardine fillets. Set aside for finishing the dish.
5. Assemble
Add the pasta to the sardine sauce and toss gently. Allow it to rest for 5–10 minutes so the flavours can meld.
Carefully fold in the whole sardine fillets. Serve topped generously with muddica atturrata.
I did not blanch the almonds in this version of Pasta con Le Sarde. I do not always blanch nuts or toast them to remove their skins.
6. IF YOU WISH TO MAKE THE BAKED VERSION
Grease an oven dish and dust with toasted breadcrumbs. Layer pasta and sauce, adding a few whole sardines between layers. Finish with breadcrumbs, a drizzle of olive oil, and optionally a pinch of sugar and cinnamon.
Bake at 200°C for about 10 minutes, until a light crust forms.
La Pasta con le Sarde è uno dei piatti più iconici della Sicilia: una ricetta semplice ma profondamente espressiva, che unisce le sarde al finocchio e a ingredienti che raccontano la storia lunga e stratificata dell’isola.
****Sul mio blog ci sono numerose versioni della Pasta con le Sarde, scritte nel corso di molti anni, accompagnate da tante fotografie e varianti. Tuttavia, ho creato questa versione più semplice per chi preferisce un metodo di preparazione più rapido, (forse preferito in Australia e altri in diverse parti nel mondo), soprattutto nel periodo natalizio, spesso molto intenso. Avevo preparato questa ricetta anche per una sessione radiofonica su SBS Italian, ma non c’è stato tempo per parlarne (come sempre, preparo troppo!).
Le sarde sono abbondanti nei mari siciliani, il finocchietto selvatico cresce spontaneamente quando è di stagione, e sapori come pinoli, uvetta e zafferano parlano chiaramente dell’influenza araba che ha segnato profondamente la cucina siciliana. Il tocco finale, la muddica atturrata – pangrattato tostato – sostituisce il formaggio ed è inconfondibilmente siciliano.
Molto probabilmente prenderò in considerazione la Pasta con le Sarde anche per il periodo delle feste natalizie.
Un piatto radicato nella tradizione siciliana
Questo è un piatto nato dalla necessità e dall’ingegno. In Sicilia la pasta si consuma quasi ogni giorno, e la pasta con le sarde è da sempre un modo per trasformare ingredienti umili e facilmente reperibili in qualcosa di memorabile.
Quando il finocchietto selvatico non è disponibile, quello coltivato funziona molto bene. Io utilizzo il bulbo, le barbe e talvolta una piccola quantità di semi di finocchio per richiamare l’aroma della pianta selvatica. Il finocchietto selvatico è stagionale e in Sicilia viene venduto a mazzi nei mercati. I siciliani rispettano la
Pasta con le Sarde,
stagionalità del finocchietto e tradizionalmente cucinano la Pasta con le Sarde solo nel periodo giusto.
Il bucatino è il formato di pasta che preferisco, ma anche gli spaghetti sono perfettamente adatti.
Pasta con Sarde
Bucatini con le Sarde
INGREDIENTI
500 g di bucatini (formato tradizionale preferito)
700 g di sarde fresche, pulite e sfilettate
200 g di finocchietto selvatico (oppure 2 grossi finocchi con le barbe + 1 cucchiaino di semi di finocchio)
Circa ¾ di tazza di olio extravergine d’oliva
2 cipolle, affettate finemente
4 filetti di acciuga
1 tazza di pinoli
1 tazza di mandorle tostate, grossolanamente tritate (facoltative)
¾ di tazza di uvetta
½–1 cucchiaino di zafferano
Sale e pepe nero
Muddica atturrata:
4–5 cucchiai di pangrattato, tostato in padella con poco olio extravergine.
Mi piace aggiungere un pizzico di zucchero e cannella durante la tostatura, e un po’ di scorza di limone finemente grattugiata.
METODO (VERSIONE SEMPLICE)
CUOCERE IL FINOCCHIO
Lessare il finocchietto selvatico in acqua salata per 10–15 minuti.
Conservare l’acqua di cottura, profumata e verde, per cuocere la pasta.
Scolare, strizzare bene e tritare finemente.
Se si usa il finocchio coltivato:
Tagliare il bulbo in quarti e lessarlo insieme ai semi di finocchio. Tenere da parte le barbe per dopo. Se presenti, bollire anche i gambi per aromatizzare l’acqua. Eliminare gambi e semi, scolare, tritare il finocchio e conservare l’acqua per la pasta.
PREPARARE IL CONDIMENTO
In una padella capiente, cuocere dolcemente le cipolle nell’olio fino a renderle morbide e dorate.
Aggiungere i filetti di acciuga e mescolare finché si sciolgono, quindi unire pinoli, uvetta e mandorle (se utilizzate).
Aggiungere circa due terzi delle sarde, tritate grossolanamente, salare e pepare, e incorporare alcune barbe di finocchio (o un po’ del finocchio tritato).
Cuocere dolcemente per 5–10 minuti.
Unire il finocchio cotto e lo zafferano sciolto in poca acqua tiepida.
CUOCERE LA PASTA
Cuocere i bucatini nell’acqua di cottura del finocchio fino a quando sono al dente.
Scolare bene.
CUOCERE LE SARDE RIMANENTI
In una padella a parte, friggere leggermente i filetti di sarda rimasti.
Tenere da parte per la fase finale.
ASSEMBLARE IL PIATTO
Unire la pasta al condimento di sarde e mescolare delicatamente.
Lasciare riposare per 5–10 minuti affinché i sapori si amalgamino.
Incorporare con delicatezza i filetti di sarda interi.
Servire con abbondante muddica atturrata.
In questa versione della Pasta con le Sarde non ho sbollentato le mandorle. Non sempre elimino la pellicina della frutta secca né la tosto.
VERSIONE AL FORNO (FACOLTATIVA)
Ungere una pirofila e spolverarla con pangrattato tostato.
Disporre a strati la pasta e il condimento, inserendo qualche filetto di sarda intero tra uno strato e l’altro.
Completare con pangrattato, un filo d’olio e, a piacere, un pizzico di zucchero e cannella.
Cuocere in forno a 200°C per circa 10 minuti, fino a ottenere una leggera crosticina.
When I cook Pasta Con Le Sarde (pasta with sardines), an iconic dish from Palermo, I can always count on my guests falling in love with Sicilian food.
This dish is a beautiful celebration of Sicily’s history, combining pasta with the deep flavours of sardines, spring onions (I especially like the green leaves), wild fennel, saffron, currants, fennel bulbs, toasted pine nuts and/or almonds. The crowning touch is a topping of crispy, golden breadcrumbs, sautéed in olive oil. The combination of ingredients is both unexpected and fascinating. But how can a dish so rich with these unique flavours be Italian? Where are the ingredients that one associates with Italian food?
The answer lies in the island’s fascinating history.
Sicily, and especially Palermo, has long been a crossroads of cultures, where various peoples and flavours were absorbed and blended. One of the most influential groups were the Arabs who settled in Sicily and ruled the island from the 9th to the 11th centuries. The Arabs brought with them an array of ingredients and culinary techniques, many of which still permeate Sicilian cooking today. The use of fennel, saffron, almonds, pine nuts, and currants, as well as the habit of combining sweet and savoury elements in one dish, are hallmarks of Arabic influence.
The photos are of Palermo.
A critical ingredient in pasta con le sarde is wild fennel, which contributes a fresh, slightly aniseed flavour to the dish. However, wild fennel has a short growing season and can be difficult to forage, and if you’re making this dish outside of the growing season you may only find stalky, yellowing plants, as I did recently, but I managed to find some fresh shoots. While you can’t replace the wild fennel entirely, you can substitute it with fennel bulbs (preferably with their fronds still attached), which will lend the dish a similar flavour profile. This too is seasonal.
Sometimes, if I am short of fennel, I add some fennel seeds to the pasta water or to the fennel and onions when I am cooking them.
Ingredients:
For Cooking the Pasta: Wild fennel stalks and fronds (if available) to infuse the cooking water.
Recommended Pasta Shape: Bucatini is the traditional choice, but spaghetti or casarecce will also work well.
extra virgin olive oil
500g fresh sardine fillets
4 spring onions, finely chopped
a handful of fennel fronds, finely chopped
1-2 fennel bulb, finely diced
a pinch of saffron (soaked in a little warm water)
50g currants (soaked in water for 10 minutes)
50g – 100g toasted pine nuts and or toasted almonds, roughly chopped
salt and pepper to taste (or a pinch of ground chili for heat)
For the Breadcrumb Topping:
1 cup breadcrumbs made from good quality day-old bread
a pinch of sugar
a sprinkle of ground cinnamon (optional, but adds a nice touch)
grated lemon zest
Instructions:
Prepare the Ingredients:
Make sure that the sardine fillets are free of bones.
Chop the spring onions and fennel fronds. Dice the fennel bulbs.
Soak in a little water the saffron and currants in separate bowls.
Make the Breadcrumb Topping:
Heat a little olive oil in a pan and add the breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar, cinnamon, and lemon zest.
Toast the breadcrumbs until golden and fragrant. Set aside.
Prepare the Pasta Water:
Add fennel stalks and some of the tough fronds in a pot of water, add a little salt and bring the salted water to a boil. Let them simmer for about 30 minutes to infuse the water with flavour.
Cook the Sardine Sauce:
Heat olive oil in a pan. Sauté the spring onions until soft and fragrant.
Add the fennel bulb and fronds and cook until softened. You may need to add a splash of water or white wine to help soften the fennel, depending on its texture.
Stir in the saffron, currants, pine nuts, and almonds. Season with salt and pepper (or chili if you prefer a little heat). Blend the flavours and cook for a few minutes and leave it to rest while you cook the pasta and fry the sardines.
Drain the solids out of the fennel infused water. Cook the bucatini (or your choice of pasta) according to the package instructions, using the fennel-infused water for a subtle flavour boost. Once the pasta is ready, drain it, reserving a little of the cooking water in case you need it.
In a separate pan, fry the sardine fillets in a little olive oil. I sometimes add a few greens from a spring onion or a few fennel seeds but it isn’t optional). They will cook quickly, and some may begin to break apart. Break about ¾ of them up slightly and add them to the fennel mixture. Reserve the whole fillets to place on top of the dressed pasta.
Assemble the Dish:
Toss the cooked pasta into the sardine and fennel mixture, ensuring the flavours are well incorporated. If the sauce seems a little dry, add some reserved pasta cooking water to bring it all together. At this stage I will probably add a splash of extra virgin olive oil.
Transfer the pasta to a serving dish, top it with the sardines and generously sprinkle with the nuts.
At this stage you have a choice. You could also top the pasta with some toasted breadcrumbs and place the extra crumbs in a bowl so that eaters can help themselves as they would with grated cheese, or to gently fold the nuts and fillets through the pasta before topping the whole bowl with toasted breadcrumbs.
Pasta Con Le Sarde – Pasta with sardines, Sicilian from my book Sicilian Seafood Cooking
You can never have enough posts for Pasta Con Le Sarde:
Pasta Con Le Sarde (sardines) can only be a Sicilian dish.
Sardines are plentiful, so is the wild fennel (it is seasonal), and most Sicilians eat pasta in some form, every day.
The flavours and ingredients of pine nuts, saffron and currants are said to have been introduced by the Arabs.
Breadcrumbs toasted in a fry pan with a little bit of olive oil are popular in Sicily as a topping or dressing – called muddica/ mollica/pan grattato, it is sprinkled on pasta instead of grated cheese, and some vegetable dishes like Parmigiana di Melanzane (eggplants), Caponata, fried peppers (Peperonata), and Sfincione (a type of regional pizza) .
And I make Pasta Con Le Sarde when I know I can impress friends, those who appreciate being impressed.
Accept that not everyone likes sardines or fancy the idea of wild fennel. The photo below shows how some bunches of wild fennel are sold in Sicilian markets.
Over the years I don’t just toast the breadcrumbs in the frypan (made bread that’s several days old); I also add a little cinnamon, a tiny bit of sugar and grated lemon peel. The lemon flavour really makes this pasta topping even more special. Sometimes I also add pine nuts to the pan.
Bucatini is the pasta I prefer – it’s slightly larger than spaghetti, long and hollow, like a tube.
But last time I made Pasta Con Le Sarde, I did use spaghetti. You can see how many pine nuts I sprinkled on top before folding them into the pasta. In a traditional dish there would be fewer.
Most of the time my Pasta Con Le Sarde looks like pretty ordinary, but still tastes magnificent. Sometimes I also add chopped, roasted almonds. Looking at this photo below can see that not all the almonds were chopped!
It is sometimes difficult to find wild fennel that is healthy looking or in season, so sometimes I do add a fresh fennel bulb.
Below the photo shows fennel and onion sauté-ing (if there is such a word!)
This is followed by the addition of saffron, wild fennel and currants.
If I can get sufficient wild fennel I use it in the boiling water to flavour the pasta. The stalks from fresh fennel also work. Simply cook the stalks or wild fennel in the water and remove them before adding the pasta to cook.
Although Sardines are easy to clean, sardines are also sold as fillets.
Andrea Calogero Camilleri, a Sicilian director and author, born 6 September 1925; died 17 July 2019.
The entire nation is in mourning: RAI 1 news, the state broadcaster, dedicated 80 per cent of its time slot to this news; writers, intellectuals and the highest representatives of the Italian state have expressed their condolences. Even his arch-enemy, Matteo Salvini, minister of the interior and leader of the xenophobic Northern League party — with whom Camilleri had several heated exchanges over the years — has paid tribute to the popular Sicilian writer.
The paragraph above is from an article published in The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald on July 20. It is written by Barbara Pezzotti, a lecturer in Italian Studies at Monash University. She is the author of three monographs dedicated to Italian crime fiction and has extensively published on Andrea Camilleri.
Camilleri perhaps is best known for his Montalbano novels and has become one of the most-loved crime fiction writers in the world. Camilleri’s books have been published worldwide and translated into 32 languages, including Catalan and Gaelic. The highly successful TV series, inspired by Montalbano’s books became an international success and was broadcast in Australia by SBS. I am sure that the scenes of beautiful Sicily in the series have encouraged many travellers.
There have been many items from around the world in praise of Camilleri and the character Inspector Montalbano, who not only fight the Mafia and solves crimes is also a lover of good food and when Andrea Camilleri died last week, one of my relatives in Ragusa, Sicily sent me an article from Ragusa News, an on-line publication that covers news and interest stories from the Ragusa Province and nearby towns – Vittoria, Modica, Comiso, Scicli, Pozzallo and Ispica.
The article is called Domenica a pranzo onoriamo Camilleri con la pasta ‘Ncasciata (On Sunday for lunch let us honour Camilleri with pasta Ncasciata).
Sunday lunch is still an important family occasion in Sicily and pasta ‘Ncasciata is an Sicilian, oven baked pasta dish and one of Montalbano’s favorite things to eat. It is prepared for him by his housekeeper, Adelina. (Place above is where Montalbano lives in the TV series.
Camilleri in his Montalbano series of books describes almost every dish Montalbano eats. And every dish is traditionally Sicilian.
There are many versions of pasta ‘Ncasciata in Sicily, with different combinations of ingredients but the most noteworthy one is from Messina and the recipe in this article appears to be the Messinese version and is made with commercial, short shaped pasta in layers dressed with tomato meat sauce, mortadella or salami, fried eggplant, caciocavallo cheese, salami and hardboiled eggs. Although I have eaten pasta ‘Ncasciata, I have never liked the sound of this dish and have never made it.
Apart from Pasta ‘Ncasciata, Montalbano has other favourites and obviously I like them too as I have written them in my blog and my first book, Sicilian Seafood Cooking.
This is a recipe for a stuffed baked fennel. Breadcrumbs are called Pangrattato (grated bread) in Italian.
DEFINITION OF PAN GRATTATO and its use.
Mollica is the soft part of the bread with crusts removed but in the culinary world both pangrattato and mollica have acquired new significances and have been enhanced. Both refer to breadcrumbs lightly toasted in in olive oil, herbs and seasonings and variations include anything from garlic, red pepper flakes, pine nuts, anchovies, lemon zest , cinnamon or nutmeg, salt and a little sugar.
Mollica or pangrattato adds texture, fragrance and complex flavours and is usually used as a stuffing or topping, especially for pasta in Calabria, Puglia and Sicily. For example, Pasta con le Sarde and Sarde a Beccafico are two Sicilian recipes that use enhanced breadcrumbs:
When I make pangrattato I store left overs in a jar in my fridge and use it to enhance other dishes: this time I used it to stuff fennel.
STUFFED FENNEL RECIPE
I use Pangrattato to stuff fennel.
For moisture and extra flavour I added a little ricotta and a little grated cheese – pecorino or parmigiano.
PROCESS
Cut the stems off the fennel and remove the toughest and usually damaged outer leaves.
Cut the fennel into quarters.
Cook the fennel in salted water, bay leaves salt and lemon juice for about 10 minutes until it is slightly softened. Remove it from the liquid and cool.
Make the filling: Work the ricotta in a bowl with a fork, mix in the pangrattato and grated cheese.
Prise open the leaves of the fennel and stuff with the pangrattato stuffing.
Place the quarters into a baking bowl that allows them to stay compact and upright (like when you are cooking stuffed artichokes).
Drizzle olive oil on top (or a little butter) and bake at 180 – 190°C for about 15 minutes
This is Pasta con le Sarde, the baked version, and a taste of Sicily’s history. It is one of the most iconic Sicilian dishes and consists of bucatini pasta tossed with sardines, wild fennel, pine nuts, saffron, and topped (or encased) with golden, fried breadcrumbs.
Pasta con le Sarde can be served hot or cold and is visually more impressive when baked into a tummàla, a Sicilian term derived from the Arabic. The Italian name is timballo, from the French timbale, the cooked ingredients are encased in rice, pasta or pastry. The dry breadcrumbs are used to line and cover the contents in the baking pan, the long bucatini can be coiled around the pan and together with the sardine sauce become the filling.
I’ve cooked this dish many times and it is one of those recipes that tells a tale that begins with Sicily’s layered history and whenever I make this dish, I enjoy telling this story to my guests.
A tale – a Dish Born of Conquest and Creativity
Muslim Arabs took control of North Africa from the Byzantines and Berbers and began their second conquest of Sicily in 827 from Mazara, the closest point to the African coast. By 902 they had fully conquered Sicily. The Muslims were known as Moors by the Christians and by the time of the Crusades, they were also referred to as Saracens.
When the Muslim Arabs conquered Sicily from 827 to 902 AD, they brought with them not just new rulers, but new flavours — saffron, nuts, and dried fruit. Legend has it that when Arab troops first landed on the island, their cook was told to prepare food from whatever could be foraged. The soldiers brought to the cook wild fennel and sardines, plentiful along the Sicilian coast.
The cook combined these local ingredients with his own Arabic exotic ingredients and flavours of Arabs and North Africans – the saffron, dried fruit and the nuts. And so Pasta con le Sarde was born.
To this day, it remains a quintessentially Sicilian dish, especially in Palermo. Its sweet-savoury, sea-meets-land flavour captures Sicily’s unique blend of cultures.
Baked or Fresh Pasta con le Sarde – The Sicilian ‘Tummàla’
This layered, breadcrumb-crusted bake turns simple pasta into a festive centrepiece. The recipe with slight variations is also featured in my book, Sicilian Seafood Cooking.
Wild fennel is seasonal and is not always easy to find so I use fennel bulbs. On this occasion I bought fennel bulbs with the greatest amounts of green fronds, added some ground fennel seeds and a splash of Pernod to enhance the fennel taste.
Wild fennel
If you can get wild fennel, place it into some cold, salted water (enough to cook the pasta) and boil it for 10-15 minutes (it can be left in the water for longer). The green tinged, fennel-flavoured water is used to cook the pasta — it will flavour and colour the pasta. Reserve some of the tender shoots of wild fennel raw to use in the cooking of the sauce.
Drain the cooked fennel and keep the fennel-flavoured water to cook the pasta. Some of the cooked fennel can be added to the pasta sauce.
Traditionally, wild fennel is boiled to make the aromatic water used to cook the pasta. When wild fennel is scarce, bulb fennel makes an excellent substitute. I like to boost the anise flavour with a pinch of ground fennel seeds or a splash of Pernod.
Baked Pasta con le Sarde (Serves 4–6)
I prepare Pasta con le Sarde in sufficient quantities to have some leftovers for baking. This is a particularly useful strategy when I have different guests arriving on two occasions in close proximity. It is especially advantageous around Easter and Christmas when fish is still a preferred dish on Good Friday and Christmas Eve. The leftovers can be reconfigured for the following day.
Ingredients:
500g bucatini
500g fresh sardines (fillets)
1 large fennel bulb with fronds, finely chopped
1 tsp ground fennel seeds or a dash of Pernod
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
4 anchovies, chopped
¾ cup toasted pine nuts
¾ cup toasted almonds
¾ cup currants or sultanas (soaked)
½–1 tsp saffron threads (soaked)
Salt, black pepper or chilli flakes
100g coarse breadcrumbs, made with day old, quality bread (sourdough/pasta dura), lightly tossed and toasted in oil with a little lemon zest, a little cinnamon, and sugar
Method:
Prepare the fennel and Sardines : Slice the fennel into thin slices and cut fronds finely. Cut about two thirds of the sardine fillets into thick pieces. Reserve whole fillets to go on top and provide visual impact.
Cook the sauce:
In a wide pan, heat olive oil and sauté onion until golden. Add fennel and cook until softened. Stir in pine nuts, almonds, and currants (drained). oss gently until heated.
Add the sliced sardines, salt and pepper or chili. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring gently.
Add the anchovies (try to remove any bones if there are any) and as they cook, crush them with back of spoon to dissolve into a paste. Add ground fennel seeds or a splash of Pernod to enhance the fennel taste. Add saffron (and the soaking water) and continue to stir and cook gently.
Fry the whole fillets of sardines in a separate frying pan, keeping them intact. Remove them from the pan and put aside.
The Pasta: Boil bucatini in the fennel water (if using wild fennel) until al dente.
Drain the pasta.
Combine: Toss pasta with the sauce, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, and top with fried whole sardine fillets.
Timballo (Baked Version) of Pasta con le Sarde
Method:
Make more breadcrumbs using the quantities above. For a deeper crust, double the quantities. I am not a great lover of using more breadcrumbs as you see in the photos.
Line a baking tin with baking paper or foil to prevent sticking and make lifting easier. Traditionally a round shape is used.
Sprinkle with the toasted breadcrumbs and layer coiled bucatini, sardine mixture, more pasta, and breadcrumbs. Make the bottom and the top thick layers of breadcrumbs if you wish for a significant crust.
Sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil, cover with foil and bake in preheated 200°C for approximately 20- 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes. When the dish is baked, the breadcrumbs form a crust.
The result? A fragrant, golden, fragrant dish and centuries of Sicilian history.
Sicily is the pearl of this century is a phrase that captures why revisiting Palermo reveals a city of extraordinary layers, where history, culture, food and memory intersect in endlessly surprising ways.
The quote below was written almost a thousand years ago by an Arabian geographer, Muhammed Al-Idrisi, in his book of “pleasant journeys into faraway lands” for the Norman King of Sicily, Roger II.
“Sicily is the pearl of this century for its qualities and its beauty, for the uniqueness of its towns and its people […] because it brings together the best aspects of every other country.”
Palazzo dei Normanni, Palermo The Norman Palace, seat of power of the Kingdom of Sicily under Roger II of Sicily, built over earlier Arab foundations.
Under Roger II of Sicily (r. 1130–1154), Palermo served as the seat of power of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, a cosmopolitan capital where Latin, Greek and Arab traditions coexisted at the highest levels of government and culture.It was also where Muhammad al-Idrisi worked at court, compiling his famous world map and geographic text for Roger II.
As Al-Idrisi discovered, Sicily may be small, but it has the best of everything and although I may visit some places again and again, I always manage to discover something new. And this is what brings me back to Sicily again and again. I grew up in the far north of Italy in Trieste but each summer as a child, I would travel to Sicily for our summer holidays – both of my parents have relatives in Sicily. For me Sicily was an exotic place of sunshine, colour and warmth, the outdoors and the sea. Wherever I go in Europe, I always visit Sicily as well.
On my latest trip I concentrated on Southeastern Sicily and went to little towns and villages that I had not been to before as well as familiar places where I’m always interested to see what’s changed and what has stayed the same.
Fish market Palermo.
Next time I visit I plan to spend more time in the city that is the essence of Sicily – Palermo. While Al-Adrisi called Sicily a “pearl” Roberto Alajmo, a journalist and blogger born and raised in Palermo compared his home town to an onion, una cipolla – its multiple layers have to be peeled to be appreciated.
Once you start peeling back the layers of Palermo what you find is a city where history meets infamy and splendor encounters squalor, antiquities stand beside modernity. All of it evidence of a fantastic overlay of cultures from Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, French and Spanish. This cultural fusion shows up in the food and drink, the art and architecture, the palaces, the temples and churches and the entire Sicilian way of life.
Last time I visited Palermo was three years ago, but each time I go I’m always happy to revisit the historic quarter with its Arabo-Norman monuments.
Cappella Palatina, Palermo Byzantine mosaics, Islamic ceiling decoration and Norman architecture come together in the royal chapel commissioned by Roger II of Sicily.
Among my favourites are the Palazzo dei Normanni and its Cappella Palatina with their dazzling Byzantine mosaics and frescoes. There’s also King Roger II’s La Martorana, where the spectacular mosaic of Christ the Pantocrator overlooks Olivio Sozzi’s baroque Glory of the Virgin Mary, painted six centuries later. I enjoy admiring the simple, geometric shapes of the Norman palaces, La Cuba and La Zisa, built entirely by Arabic craftsmen and the distinctive Arabo-Norman red domes on San Cataldo and San Giovanni degli Ermiti.
La Zisa, Palermo Built by Arab craftsmen for the Norman court, La Zisa reflects Islamic concepts of geometry, water and climate-conscious design.
On my not-to-miss list is the Cattedrale which is another masterpiece of overlaid period styles, begun by the Normans in the 12th Century, with 15th Century Catalan Gothic porch, capped off with a neo-classical 18th Century neo-classical dome. The timeline continues inside with tombs of Norman and Swabian kings and queens: Roger II and his daughter, Costanza d’Altavilla and their son Frederick II and his wife of Costanza of Aragon. You can admire her imperial gold crown in the cathedral’s treasury.
Palermo Cathedral An extraordinary palimpsest of styles — Norman, Gothic, Catalan and Baroque — layered over centuries at the city’s spiritual heart.
Palermo also has a fountain to rival the best of Rome. La Fontana Pretoria was once prudishly called the “fountain of shame” because of the multiple nude statues. Judge for yourself!
La Fontana Pretoria.
The baroque also makes a grand stand in the four elegant palazzo facades of the Quattro Canti, framing the intersection of Palermo’s two main boulevards.
Quattro Canti, Palermo Baroque façades frame the intersection of Palermo’s two main axes, marking the symbolic centre of the historic city.
I know I’m at the heart of the onion that is Palermo when I enter the labyrinth of laneways in the city’s sprawling markets – especially La Vucciria and Ballarò – with their clustered stalls that remind me of an Arabic souk. I like to listen to the clamour of the traders’ shouted Sicilian dialect. Sheltered from the sun under red canvas awnings you find the fish stalls. In his book, Midnight in Sicily Peter Robb described how the diffused red light of the market “enhanced the translucent red of the big fishes’ flesh and the silver glitter of the smaller ones’ skins”.
Wandering the old quarters of Palermo, you’ll pick up the aroma of traditional street-food fried in large vats such as panelle (chickpea flour fritters), cazzilli (potato croquettes) or meusa (spleen) which are typical dishes of the friggerie. You will smell char-grilled peppers. And if I want to eat these treats in doors I go to classic restaurants like L’Antica Foccaceria San Francesco which has been cooking the same thing for decades.
I find it interesting to see how traditional cuisine has developed and one of my favourite things to do in Palermo (or anywhere I go in Sicily) is to find restaurants that re-invent traditional dishes and present them with contemporary twists. And if I want to contrast the old-style dishes with contemporary versions there are still typical trattorie like La Casa del Brodo that have classic Palermo dishes like sarde a beccafico, caponata, pasta con la sarde.
I’m also seriously interested in discovering the ever increasing new hip bars that serve glasses of Sicilian wine varieties like grillo and nero d’avola and boutique beers matched with interesting snacks that reflect modern Sicilian cuisine.
When the time comes to escape the close-quarter hustle of the city, I can catch a bus to the north-west side of Palermo to admire the Liberty-style residences of the capital’s once-wealthy merchants. I can travel to the picturesque seaside town of Mondello, where I can dine out on the waterfront, drink in the view, scoop up a granita or gelato, eat a cannolo or a slice of cassata. It is definitely a place to eat fish and enjoy a drink or two.
Mondello, near Palermo A seaside escape from the city, known for Liberty-style villas, seafood, granita and long lunches by the water.
Back in town I can always book a ticket to the opera or ballet at the Teatro Massimo and eat a delicious cold treat on my way back to where I am staying.
Palermo’s gardens are another escape. I love to wander in the greenery of the Villa Giulia or the Piazza Marina with its massive fig trees, which are spectacular. The modern art galleries are another diversion. There’s the GAM (La Galleria d’Arte Moderna), Francesco Pantaleone Arte Contemporanea, Nuvole Incontri d’Arte and Palazzo Riso which I was told about on my last visit to Palermo, when I saw an exhibition of works by Francesco Simeti.
Palazzo Riso, Palermo A late-18th-century palace turned contemporary art museum, its restored scars bearing witness to Palermo’s turbulent modern history.
Palazzo Riso is a baroque neo-classical edifice built in the 1780s. It was Mussolini’s temporary headquarters in World War II and bombed by the Americans in a failed attempt to kill the Italian dictator (who had left town only days before the air-raid). For years the Palazzo stood in ruins and when it was finally restored during the late-1990s, the restorers preserved some of the damage as evidence of its history.
Although I have seen Guttoso’s painting of the Vucciria Market hanging in the Palazzo Chiaramonte Steri, I have yet to see the basement where thousands of prisoners accused of heresy through the Holy Inquisition were imprisoned. These prison walls are covered in prisoners’ simple etchings, which were plastered over in the 19th Century.
I take great pleasure in returning to a place as rich and varied as Sicily and why revisiting a city as layered as Palermo is top of my European travel wish list. It may not have the reputation of Rome (the eternal city) or Florence (la serenissima) but it has depth and diversity.
Classic Palermo dishes mentioned this post: sarde a beccafico, caponata, pasta con la sarde.
This post is about the Sicilian method of cooking pasta in the vegetable water.
MY SICILIAN RELATIVES
I have relatives who live in Sicily. Food and recipes bring people together and when I publish recipes on my blog, my Sicilian relatives get in touch.
My cousins who are still living have sons and daughters who are in their 40’s and 60’s. These younger cousins (even if they are in their 40’s and 60’s) use the internet and read the recipes that I publish on my blog. Some of them sometimes contact me through Facebook and sometimes they suggest variations to particular recipes. I very much appreciate this.
What Sicilians do
When I cook pasta with a green leafy vegetable, for example Cime di Rapa or Broccoli I sauté the vegetables without pre cooking them first. Sicilian culinary tradition is strong, even amongst the young.
Below are two comments made recently about cooking pasta in the same water that the leafy, winter, green vegetable (called Cime di Rapa/ Cime di Rape or Broccoli Rape) have been cooked in. on this occasion Valentina and Stefania contacted me.
Valentina lives in Augusta and is from my mother’s side of the family. Stefania, from my father’s side of the family lives in Ragusa. These young women have never met, but they now know each other through the recipes on my blog.
Here are the variations they have suggested:
Valentina
Marisa ti do la mia ricetta. Si fanno bollire le cimette ben pulite e si scolano, nell’acqua di cottura si fa cuocere la pasta (di solito orecchiette), nel frattempo si fa rosolare in olio extra vergine d’oliva un paio d ‘acciughe dissalate e le cimette e si fanno saltare in padella x qualche minuto …poi si unisce la pasta et voile’ la pasta è fatta!
Boil the Cime di Rapa in the same water that you will cook the pasta (usually orecchiette).
Add the cleaned vegetables to salted boiling water, cook and drain them. Return the vegetable water to the saucepan and use it to cook the pasta.
While the pasta is cooking and the vegetables are draining, heat some extra virgin olive oil in a frypan (large enough to hold the vegetables and the pasta).
Add a couple of finely chopped anchovies, then the green vegetables and sauté them for a few minutes. Add the drained pasta and the pasta is ready.
Stefania
Oltre alle acciughe (una ogni due persone, se sono grandi) aggiungi spicchi di aglio, peperoncino rosso. Salta la pasta e se vuoi aggiungi pan grattato.
As well as the anchovies (2-4), add cloves of garlic and red chillies to the hot oil. Add the green vegetables and the cooked pasta (and sauté them for a few minutes to mix the flavours).
Serve the pasta with fried breadcrumbs (that have been toasted in a frypan in a little extra virgin olive oil).
Both Valentina and Stefania cook the pasta in the same water that the vegetables have been cooked in. The same is done when cooking pasta with kohlrabi or cauliflower or broccoli as a dressing for pasta. Cooking the vegetables first and then using the vegetable water to cook the pasta is the common way in Sicily. This is how my mother cooked it as well.
Although I am familiar with this traditional Sicilian method, I prefer to sauté my vegetables raw rather than boiling them first (to preserve vitamins and their texture).
Pasta con the sarde or Pasta con la mollica are the only two recipes where I always cook the wild fennel in the water that will be re-used to cook the pasta. It flavours the pasta and also tints the pasta a shade of green.
Both of these pasta dishes are also presented with fried breadcrumbs.
I found this bunch of fennel at one of my favourite stalls in the Queen Victoria market this week. Apart from many other vegetables, I always buy my cime di rape, radicchio, chicory, kale, broadbeans, coloured cauli, violet eggplants – name any of the out of the norm vegetables and this is where I go: to Gus and Carmel’s. I even bought some milkweed this morning. This is where I also buy my vlita – another weed.
At the end of the fennel season (and it is well and truly this in Victoria, Australia) the fennel plant (called Florentine fennel) produces some flat bulbs, which never mature.
My friend Libby who grows fennel in her wonderful garden in the Adelaide Hills first alerted me to these flat bulbs last year – at the time we thought that this would be very suitable to use with pasta con le sarde which includes wild fennel as one of the ingredients. After speaking to her I saw some bunches of these small flat bulbs for sale at the Queen Victoria Melbourne Market. And here they were again for sale today. I spoke to the vendor (Gus) who said that rather than wasting them he thought that he could try to sell bunches of them. This fennel may become very marketable – good on you Gus.
Gus is Calabrese. He knows that I like to use this type of fennel for my Sicilian pasta con le sarde, but he told me how he uses the fennel to make a pasta sauce and he uses anchovies.
He slices the whole plant finely (the green fronds and non-developed bulbs) and cooks it all in some boiling water with a little salt. Then he drains it well.
Anchovies are the secret ingredient.
In a large frypan dissolve a few chopped anchovies in some hot extra virgin olive oil (the anchovies are crushed using a wooden or metal spoon until they melt in the oil).
Add the garlic (chilli is optional). Add the cooked fennel and toss it in extra virgin olive oil and flavours. This is your pasta sauce.
Sicilians would select bucatini. Calabresi may use spaghetti or a short pasta shape.
Present the pasta dressed with the fennel, topped with toasted breadcrumbs (the alternative to grated cheese not only in Sicily, but obviously also in Calabria).
For bread crumbs: use 1-3 day old white bread (crusty bread, sourdough or pasta dura).
Remove crust, break into pieces, place into a food processor and make into coarse crumbs. They can be crumbled with fingertips or grated. The term for breadcrumbs, in Italianispane grattugiato/ grattato – it means grated bread.
Heat about ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan and add 1 cup of coarse breadcrumbs (see above). Stir continuously on low temperature until an even, golden brown.
Obviously if you do not have access to someone who has fennel growing in their garden, or to wild fennel, or to Gus and Carmel’s stall you may need to use bulb fennel with as much green frond as you can get. Nearly as good, but not quite!!
I also bought this garlic at the same time – Gus and Carmel, heroes!
