Pasta with sardines ("Pasta chi sardi")

Pasta with sardines ("Pasta chi sardi"), combination of strong and contrasting flavors, is one of the most famous Sicilian dishes in the World, that will surprise you for its unique and extraordinary taste. There are several versions of this recipe prepared with absolutely typical ingredients of the Sicilian territory as sweet fennel or ingredients which are entered for centuries in the island cuisine as pine nuts, imported at the time of Arab domination. Some of this recipes provide, for example, to bake pasta for few minutes before finishing the cooking, or, instead, to add tomato sauce, as is customary in the Agrigento area. I present you the version that is prepared in Palermo, where the pasta with sardines is considered one of the most traditional dishes and cooked for the feast of Santa Rosalia and St. Joseph (now called Father's Day).

First of all clean the sweet fennel, taking care to remove the toughest sprigs, rinse it quickly and put to boil in a pot with plentiful salt water for 20 minutes. Once cooked, remove the fennel from the pot but don't throw its cooking water, reserve it aside because you will need later. Dry fennel with blotting paper and cut into pieces.





Meanwhile clean the sardines. Remove heads, tails, plugs, bowels and, finally, open them in half lenghtwise. Rinse carefully them, dry with blotting paper, then, cut into small pieces (but not too small) and store. Now slice thinly the onion  and brown it in a big pan with two spoons of extravirgin oil, add the anchovy fillets and let them "melt" until they become a sort of sauce creamy. At this point add the sardines and fry everything for about 3-4 minutes.

In the frying pan add the grape passolina, the pine nuits, the sweet fennel, 4 teaspoons of salt and 2 teaspoons of fresh ground black pepper. Take care to mix this seasoning with delicacy and, if it seems necessary, add 1 tablespoon of the sweet fennel cooking water, that you have held aside. Let cook for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, put on the gas the pot with remained fennel cooking water (if it's necessary add more water) in which you will cook the bucatini. In another pan, pour 1 tablespoon of extravirgin olive oil and add the bread-crumbs, let toats it until it is golden brown, but attention not to make it burn.

When pasta will be cooked drain it well, then pour into the pan with the seasoning and mix everything gently, keeping the gas flame to a minimum. After plating  pasta, sprinkle each portion with abundant bread-crumbs and bring on the table.





I suggest you to accompany the pasta with sardines with a vintage and flavored white wine, well frozen.

Doses for four people:

- 500 grams/1 lb of bucatini pasta
- 500 grams/1 lb of sweet fennel (if you don't find it, you can use the green part of fennel but the final taste will be not the same)
- 500 grams/1 lb of fresch sarde (sarde are also known as sardines)
- 50 grams/2 oz of grape passolina (I suggest you to don't use rainsins or grape sultana because are too sweet)
- 50 grams/2 oz of pine nuts
- 3 salted anchovies
- 1 white onion
- bread-crumbs (3/4 tablespoons)
- extravirgin olive oil
- salt
- fresh ground black pepper

"Ghiotta" of Stockfish (Piscistoccu a gghjiotta)

The "ghiotta" of stockfish, in Messina dialect told  "Piscistoccu a gghjiotta", is one of the most famous dishes of the coast of the city. It is a very simple and genuine dish, it can be considered one course meal and in the past, after the Second World War, was often prepared during the week because it was considered a "poor food" (stockfish was the cheapest fish). Today the "ghiotta" of stockfish is known throught the world as typical dish of the city which overlooks the Sicilian Strait, and for this reason it is inserted in the menus of many restaurants, even the most refined.

Buy the "Pescestocco" (in Italy Stockfish is told Pesce Stocco, in Messina the two words are written united) already soaked and deprived it of thorns and bones; in Sicily people buy it from "piscistuccaru". Wash the stockfish before cooking ande dry carefully with plotting paper. Fry the stockfish, for a few minutes, with extra vergin oil in a no stick pan.

In an other pan with high base (the Sicilian housewives used earthenware pots) fry the onion, finely chopped, with plenty of olive oil (2 spoons). Add tomatoes (no peeled and already cut), salt and ground black pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes. Add the potatoes previously peeled and sliced. Cook the sauce with potatoes for about 20 minutes. 

United sauce with potatoes and the stockfish already fried. Pour half aglass of white wine and let evaporate. Add the desalined capers, pitted olives, chopped parsley and red hot pepper cut into rounds. Cook over a low fire for about 45 minutes, stirring off and on with great delicacy and adding some water, preferably hot, just enought to cook the fish better. I suggest you monitor the amount of the sauce: if it's necessary still add some water or, if the sauce becomes too liquid, let restrict it prolonging the cooking time. Finally adjust the food with salt and ground black pepper if need be. 

At this point the "Ghiotta", which can easily be prepared also for our celiac friends, is ready and you can bring on the table with a good full- bodied red wine and homemade bread.

Doses for 6 people:

- 1 kilograms of stockfish (it is dried cod)
- 1 kilograms of potatoes (about 10, peeled and cut for long in thick slices)
- 1 red onion (cut thinly)
- 200 grams /7 oz of  green olives in brine pitted
- 100 grams/ 3¾  oz of capers (already washed)
- 15 Piccadilly tomatoes (no peeled and cut in four parts)
- half glass of white wine
- chopped parsley (about 2 spoons)
- 1 red chilli pepper (cut into rounds)
- half glass of extra olive oli
- salt (about 1½ spoon, but adjust according to your taste)
- ground black pepper (about 3 teaspoons, but adjust according to your taste)

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Sauce with capers and olives

The sauce with capers and olives is a tipycal Mediterranean seasoning, very simple to prepare.
Peel the spring onions and chop finely. Then, wash the capers under running waters to remove all salt and pat dry them with a blotting paper. Pit the green olives and cut into rounds.

Scald the tomatoes in boiling waters for a few seconds, then remove them with a slotted spoon and let cool for some minutes. At this point, peel them, open in half, remove the seeds and shake it to get a pass (if you prefer you can use vegetable mill instead the mixer).

Brown the oil in a large and heavy bottom, add the spring onions and fry them over a low flame but they must not take color (to be clear, they don't be browned): add capers and olives, pour the mixture of tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes, stirring often. Few minutes before removing the sauce from the flame, add salt and season plenty with oregano and ground black pepper. Divide the sauce in clean and dry vessels, close them hermetically and sterilize for 20 minutes.

The sauce with capers and olives is an ideal sauce for pasta. You need only to warm up it in a saucepan, adding a little of oil, for few minutes before using. This sauce, so prepared, can be saved in your pantry for about 8-9 months and be used, without problems, by vegans, vegetarians and celiac.

For 6 jars 2.5 dl (6,8 fl oz)

- 2 kilograms of firm and ripe plum tomatoes ("San Marzano")

- 4 spring onions

- 5 tablespoons of extra vergin olive oil

- 80 grams/3 oz of salted capers

- 80 grams/3 oz of green olives

- oregano (6/7 teaspoon)
- extra virgin olive oil

- salt (about 2 tablespoon, but adjust according to your taste)
- fresh ground black pepper (about 3 teaspoon of pepper, but adjust according to your taste)

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