Pasta con Sarde -- Pasta with Sardines

Instructions

Toast the breadcrumbs by heating 1 tablespoon of the butter in a small saute pan. Add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Place in a small bowl toss with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and reserve.

Cook the Bucatini pasta according to package directions.

Chop the fennel bulb finely. Combine saffron, raisins, red pepper and wine in a bowl. Cook onion, garlic, fennel bulb, and fennel seeds in oil, with salt to taste in a heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring until fennel is tender, about 25 minutes. Add wine mixture and the sardines, breaking up the sardines with a fork. Break up the sardines into fairly small pieces, or mash them. Simmer for at least 10 minutes, letting the flavors mingle. Keep a close eye on the sauce so it does not burn.

Drain pasta when cooked al dente, return it to the pasta pot, then toss the hot pasta with the fennel sauce, over very low heat. Add fennel fronds, pine nuts, capers and salt and pepper to taste and toss again. Serve immediately with the reserved breadcrumbs to sprinkle over individual dishes.

Author's Comments

This dish was made very infrequently at our home . . . my mother was not the greatest fan of the dish, and would never make it . . . my father would. Or, we would go to my Aunt Josie’s home . . . she would make it for us. Our nickname for the dish . . . Pasta with Garbage! Consider the diverse ingredients . . . Fennel, raisins, breadcrumbs. But it is delicious. Do not sprinkle grated cheese on this dish. It is a fish dish . . . No cheese

* Bucatini Pasta is a large spaghetti like pasta, but much thicker, and has a hole down the center, like a straw. It can be found in most Italian Specialty Shops.

From my cookbook: The "Old Country" Italian Cookbook, by Donald J.P. La Marca

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