🍝 Pasta con le sarde

Name: Pasta con le sarde
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Italy · Sicily
Ingredients: 320 g spaghetti or bucatini; 400 g fresh sardines, cleaned and filleted; 200 g wild fennel fronds or 1 fennel bulb with its fronds; 30 g raisins, soaked in warm water; 30 g pine nuts; A pinch of saffron in 2 tbsp warm water; 1 onion, finely chopped; 3 tbsp olive oil; Salt and black pepper

Origin: Italy · Sicily

528kcal

per serving · 320 g

165kcal

per 100 g

29 gProtein9 g / 100 g

19 gFat6 g / 100 g

70 gCarbs22 g / 100 g

Pasta con le sarde is a Sicilian pasta of fresh sardines cooked with wild fennel, raisins, pine nuts and saffron. It balances sweet and savoury: briny fish, aniseed-scented fennel, plump raisins and toasted pine nuts. Bucatini are the traditional shape in Palermo, but spaghetti is common too.

Diets

✓

No pork

✓

Dairy-freeno milk, cheese, butter or yogurt in a typical recipe

Not vegetarianbecause of: sardines

Not veganbecause of: sardines

Contains glutenbecause of: spaghetti

Not keto22 g carbs per 100 g

Allergens

Contains (in a typical recipe):

⚠ Gluten ⚠ Fish ⚠ Tree nuts

What it is made of

spaghettisardinesfennelraisinspine nutssaffron

Recipe

4 servings45 min

Ingredients

320 g spaghetti or bucatini
400 g fresh sardines, cleaned and filleted
200 g wild fennel fronds or 1 fennel bulb with its fronds
30 g raisins, soaked in warm water
30 g pine nuts
A pinch of saffron in 2 tbsp warm water
1 onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Method

Boil the fennel in salted water for 10 minutes; lift it out, chop it and keep the water to cook the pasta.
Soften the onion in the oil, add the pine nuts and drained raisins and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the sardines and fennel and cook for 5 minutes, breaking the fish up gently. Stir in the saffron water.
Cook the pasta in the fennel water until al dente and toss it with the sauce, adding a little cooking water.

How to make it lighter

Sardines are an oily fish, so keep the added oil to 1–2 tbsp; 1 tbsp oil ≈ 120 kcal.
Halve the pine nuts — 15 g still gives crunch.
Serve a 250 g plate with a tomato salad.

History

The dish is strongly associated with Palermo, and its mix of raisins, pine nuts and saffron is often credited to the Arab influence on Sicilian cooking in the Middle Ages, though the exact origin is not documented. It is especially popular in spring, when wild fennel is in season.

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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →