A fusion of Italian and Arabic cooking traditions in one irresistible dish.
Steeping the raisins and saffron in warmed wine rehydrates and plumps the raisins, and extracts the saffron's flavor into the wine.Seasoned bread crumbs make an excellent grated cheese substitution.
There are many variations of pasta con le sarde, but they all consist of an unlikely combination of sweet and savory flavors: sweet sautéed onions, aromatic fennel and saffron, plump raisins, toasted pine nuts, salty anchovies, and oily chunks of fresh sardines. Plus pasta, of course . The pasta, sardines, fennel, and anchovies are all typical Italian ingredients, and the inclusion of raisins, saffron, and pine nuts is a textbook example of Arabic culinary influence.
, a worthwhile project if you eat a lot of them . Just for reference, if you've ever eaten a whole anchovy fillet, say on a pie from an average pizzeria, and found it alarmingly salty and weirdly furry, that was a bad anchovy. Good ones are salty too, but not cringingly so, and they have a smooth and firm texture that won't remind you of a hairy caterpillar. Whether you prepare your own or buy them already in oil, they are worth seeking out.
Some people—usually chefs—will sneak fennel pollen into the dish, which has a more intense wild-fennel flavor that can make up some of the difference. Fennel pollen can be expensive, though, and unlike at a restaurant, it's not something that's easy to use up quickly at home. Instead, I punch up the fennel flavor with ground toasted fennel seeds, which I mix into bread crumbs that garnish the pasta.You've probably heard the rule that says to never combine fish and cheese.
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