Gusto's Pasta con le Sarde

Summer is almost here, beach season is almost upon us. Have you tried on last year's bikini yet? Figured out what diet to use to whittle down those last few pounds of winter insulation before you slip into something a little more revealing?

Well, this is your last chance to change your life. How about the Total & Utter Disgust 'n' Despair Diet TM? It's remarkably effective. Why, all you have to do is read a couple of books, starting with Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma and ending with Bottomfeeder, and maybe watch a documentary or two, like King Corn or Super Size Me - yes, from the comfort of your very own couch! no movement required - and you'll lose your appetite, ensuring slimmer thighs and a chiseled face, guaranteed.

Protein will lose all its allure - poultry, beef, pork, even fish (shrimp!) will be entirely nauseating! Turn your nose up at rice - millions of people need it more than you do - and eye vegetables, both conventional and organic, with suspicion: the twin dangers of E. coli and murky ethics lurk everywhere, didn't you know? You'll find yourself grateful to have nothing but HFCS-free cereal with antiobiotic-free milk for dinner, and that can do wonders for the flabby, late-spring body.

The Total & Utter Disgust 'n' Despair Diet TM! There's simply nothing else like it.

(Side effects may include depression, rage, and hopelessness. But everyone knows you hate to eat when you're feeling like the world is coming to an end - so look on the bright side: You'll drop a dress size in less than a week!)

*****************

Yes, folks, I seem to have lost my appetite. I'm 182 pages into Taras Grescoe's Bottomfeeder (which is a must-read, especially for people who like to eat fish) and it feels like the straw that broke the camel's back. About the only thing I feel good about eating now from the piscine world are a dozen oysters and a can of sardines. You might end up feeling that way, too. So in anticipation of that, here's a recipe for pasta with canned sardines that's quite delicious.

(Don't even try serving it to people who are avowed anchovy haters - the hate seems to extend to all small canned fish. Believe me, I tried. And failed. Miserably.)

Pasta con le Sarde
Serves 4

½ cup currants
¼ teaspoon red-pepper flakes
½ cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup unseasoned dry bread crumbs
½ cup plus 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 small cloves garlic, minced
1 pound fennel, bulb finely chopped, fronds chopped and reserved
1 tablespoon fennel seeds, crushed
Salt
1 pound canned sardines
1 pound bucatini pasta
½ cup pine nuts, toasted
¼ cup capers, rinsed
Freshly ground black pepper

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Combine the currants, red-pepper flakes and wine in a bowl; set aside. In a small sauté pan, melt the butter. Add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring, until golden brown. Transfer to a bowl, stir in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and set aside.

2. In a heavy skillet, heat ½ cup olive oil over medium-low heat. When hot, add the onion, garlic, fennel bulb and fennel seeds. Season with salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the fennel is tender, about 25 minutes.

3. Add the wine mixture and the sardines, breaking them into pieces with a fork. Bring to a boil and gently simmer for 10 minutes.

4. Add enough salt to the boiling water so that it tastes salty. Boil the bucatini until al dente, 6 to 8 minutes; strain. Return the pasta to the pasta pot and set over low heat. Fold in the fennel-sardine mixture. Toss in the remaining 4 tablespoons olive oil. Add 3/4 of the fennel fronds, the pine nuts, the capers and a quarter of the bread crumbs. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

5. Divide pasta among plates and sprinkle the remaining bread crumbs and fennel fronds over each. Serve immediately.

Comments

[Sylvie]

I don't know if I want to read that book, I enjoy eating fish too much. Your recipe looks great.

[Leisureguy]

And don't overlook fresh sardines, when you can get them. I buy them whole, fresh from Monterey Bay, and then cut off the head, slice open the belly and pull out the guts, and pull out the dorsal and ventral fins, rinsing well. Then, using thumb and forefinger, I fillet them, sliding my finger the length of the sardine, pressing against the spine, lifting off the fillet. Turn the fish over, repeat, and you have a little butterflied sardine. You can marinate them (olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, garlic, and sea salt) and roast, or just pan fry. Great little guys.

[Monica]

This sounds yummy. A *pound* of canned sardines? I'm thinking that would be a lot of those little cans...am I wrong?

[Luisa]

Sylvie - especially if you like fish, you should read it.

Monica - the amount is correct, it's about 4 little tins of sardines (I think each one is 4 ounces). You can, of course, use less - to taste.

[Molly]

Great, now I'm really dreading reading it.

But I do like sardines. The other thing you can do after you gut some fresh sardines (or wimp out and have the fishmonger do it for you) is re-stuff them full of herbs and a bit of chopped garlic if you're so inclined and throw them on the grill or under the broiler. Yum. It's been my answer to a lack of local wild salmon this spring.

[DrB]

This sounds amazing...I guess if using (canned) anchovies, cut out salt altogether. Speaking of, has anyone ever had luck getting *fresh* anchovies? I once asked our friendly, local fishmonger in FH (=Forest Hills, NY), and he looked at me as though I'd suddenly sprung a second head. "We rarely get 'em fresh..." Which I guess is a polite way of saying that I am wasting my time?

[Michael McGreggory]

What an interesting theory for a weight reduction plan. I’m not sure if I’d want to try it, but it’s sure worth thinking about. I’ve talked with quite a few people who worked in one type of food processing plant or another, and every one of them told me that they would never eat that particular type of food again, not after what they’d seen. So there might indeed be a good deal of merit in this kind of weight reduction. I wish everyone the best of luck.

[Luisa]

DrB - the recipe uses canned sardines, not anchovies. I wouldn't cut out the salt. As for fresh anchovies, yes, I think you're not likely to see them fresh in this country. (And certainly not at the fish market in Forest Hills!) But you can buy them marinated at Zabar's (at least that's where I've seen them). From Spain, they're labeled "boquerones". Delicious.

[edamame]

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http://food-soybean.blogspot.com/

[Sarah]

Ugh, I hear you. I used to think it was just swordfish I had to steer clear of. I am now afraid of shrimp, my beloved cod, and pretty much anything that doesn't say where it's from. Which leaves me where you are exactly, eating sardines from a can. But they were wonderful!

[EB]

You've totally hit the nail on the head. I've been thinking about this a lot lately. It's like you have to make a choice between living in a yurt and eating only grass you grow yourself (for roofing as well as dinner)or going with the 'ignorance is bliss' theory.

[Maxine]

I'm almost done with Omnivore's Dilemma and I'm facing the same predicament. I'm going to need a break from the non-fiction genre when I'm done, but next time I want to drop down a dress size, I'll go for Bottomfeeder. :)

The recipe sounds delicious, but sadly I can only think of a small handful of people with whom I could share it. Silly non-sardine eaters!

[alexandria]

i'm new to sardines but was driven to try them recently by a love of anchovies that i slowly realized was actually a love of all small unloved fish. so i've been doggedly cooking an improvised version of sardines-'n-pasta, using my standby "dinner alone" recipe: some thin whole wheat pasta, the roasted cloves of almost a whole head of garlic, olive oil, parmesan, some red pepper flakes and some parsley. to that i simply add sardines. except-- wow, the combination doesn't work. i've made it four times now (i was determined to like it) and it turns my cheesy-garlicky addiction into a mess o' flavors that don't go together. which brings me to my question: any idea why? i mean, are there additional flavors in the recipe above that you think are essential to make the sardines-garlic-pasta combo work? is the problem that i'm using whole wheat pasta, which tends to be slightly sweet? or could it be the cheese? i know cheese with fish is unorthodox, but pasta without cheese has always seemed kind of sad to me. and-- YES as to the disgust & despair point. i miss tuna.

[Luisa]

Alexandria - the article that this recipe came from was precisely about that very issue: cheese with fish-based pasta sauces. Most Italians will tell you to put the cheese away when making a fish-based pasta dish, and this Italian has to concur. The two just don't work together. So, my first suggestion to you would be to try your recipe without adding Parmesan. My second would be to tone down the amount of garlic you're using (almost a whole head for one person: you're a brave soul!). Try just one or two cloves, and let the fish take the starring role. Pasta con le sarde is a typically Sicilian dish, which is why it has the addition of such "exotic" ingredients as currants and pine nuts. You don't need those things to make a nice plate of sardine pasta... Keep me posted on your experiments!

[gemma]

Luckily I think this recipe is so darn good that I could eat it every day for the rest of my life.

[Mireille]

I hate it when books and the media tell us what we should be eating. I'm taking marine biology, and the students had to dissect fish...somehow, this puts me off from eating fish.

[ganda]

I'm totally on that diet. It's doing nothing for my figure, but at least the guilt isn't eating away at me as much.

[Jean]

Great idea for a site. I'm always wary of those newspaper recipes, but tried my first just two weeks ago -- quick chicken mole. It was surprisingly tasty and (shock) quick. Keep up the great work.
--jean

[dara]

You didn't say if you liked this recipe or not. Was it to your taste and worth the effort?

I also just started reading Bottomfeeder, and wow, it is so sad, but enlightening, and I'm happy to be learning the truth about our seas and the fishing industry. I agree, sardines and oysters sound good right now; all the rest, ugh!

I'll definitely be making different choices now, but really, no matter how good my intentions, I can't give up everything! Given all the doom and gloom, I am set to truly enjoy everything I do choose to consume, to revel in the flavors and feel gratitude and joy for having the chances and opportunities that I do. And I hope you do the same!

[Peter]

Hi there, first time visitor and I adore sardines and pasta and enjoy fresh grilled sardines even more...nice dish!