Making Pasta con Sarde 🎣🐕‍🦺

“If you want to eat fresh fish, you must not have a tight wallet” a Sicilian Proverb

Being an island Sicily has wonderful Fish and Seafood, and when dining in restaurants you will find that the fish you are eating was caught that morning.

The city of Catania has wonderful markets and its Pescheria (Fish Market) is known as one of the most colourful in Europe.

In Sicily you will find an amazing choice of fish and seafood. The ones to look out for are Pesce Spada (Swordfish) Tonno (Tuna) Aragosta (Spiny Lobster) Gambero Rosso (Red Prawns) and Sarde (Sardines).

Sicilian Pasta dishes make use of the abundance of local produce that the island offers. A popular pasta dish is Pasta con Sarde, which is made with sardines, fennel, pine nuts, raisins and anchovies. If you are a fan of the Italian TV series Inspector Montalbano you will know that this is one of Salvo’s favourite dishes. It is my husbands favourite pasta dish too.

Legend says that when Euphemius of Messina returned to Sicily from exile in Tunisia to mount a military expedition in 827AD his Arab cooks on landing at the harbour of Mazara, on the west coast of the island, put together a dish using the first ingredients that came to hand. The freshest sardines from the sea, wild fennel from the land, pine nuts from pine trees and raisins from dried grapes on vines.

Euphemius of Messina was a Byzantine commander who, in the 9th Century, rebelled against the Byzantine emperor Michael II leading to the Muslim conquest of Sicily. He was initially appointed as a commander of the provincial fleet by the governor of Sicily but after facing punishment after an alleged abduction he revolted and proclaimed himself emperor. He then invited the Aghlabids (a Muslim dynasty in North Africa) to invade Sicily effectively initiating a conflict that would change the islands history. He was killed in either 827 or 828 during the siege of Castrogiovanni (modern day Enna).

Whatever his antics or intentions were it is with thanks to him and his cooks that we have such a flavoursome fishy pasta dish in Sicily with awesome fresh ingredients.

Sardines (Sarde) are a common and cheap fish and can be found swimming off the Sicilian coast in abundance.

Another popular dish in Sicily is Sarde Beccafico (Stuffed Sardines) which is an inexpensive version of a dish once enjoyed by Sicilian nobility. The word "Beccafico" (fig pecker) refers to a bird that was considered a delicacy in those times. The stuffed sardines are said to resemble cooked stuffed birds with their little tails sticking out. They are stuffed with raisins, pine nuts and breadcrumbs before being baked until golden and crisp.

One of my favourite flavours in Sicily is fennel or in Italian finocchio. In Sicily wild fennel grows everywhere, by the sea, in the mountains, in pastures and along roadsides and motorways. It sprouts up in early Spring and blossoms into yellow flowers that yield seeds which propagate well. This is why you see this plant in such abundance across the island. The bulb, foliage and seeds of the plant are used in many of the culinary traditional dishes of Sicily. Fennel seeds are an aromatic anise flavoured spice and are usually harvested by hand. The fronds, known as wild fennel, are delicately flavoured and similar in shape to those of dill. They have a texture that is quite feathery and I am sure if you tickled someone with them it would make them giggle. Wild fennel in Sicily is also known as Buzbiez, a word thought to be from Arabic times. The bulb is a crisp vegetable that can be sautéed, stewed, braised, grilled or eaten raw. It is delicious with a slightly sweet, almost liquorice-y flavour.

Sardines and fennel are a perfect combination.

Sicilian pine nuts (pinoli) are praised for their distinct rich flavour and their soft buttery texture which make them more superior to any other pine nut. Raisins (uvetta) are dried grapes and are produced by drying the fruit which causes them to lose moisture and to shrivel resulting in a small, sweet and chewy ingredient. Both pine nuts and raisins are a firm staple in Sicilian cuisine and a must have supply for any Sicilian kitchen.

When we adopted our dog Duke in November 2023 at just six months old it became apparent that he had a sensitive stomach . Our beloved angel Daisy was a true carnivore and only ate meat and would turn her nose up at anything fishy. Our vet in London suggested trying Duke on a fish diet and suggested white fish or even sardines. When we bought him a tin of sardines and they passed his cute little puppy lips there was no going back and now we cannot even say “Sardines” without our little baby boy smacking his lips together. Our Duke does love his sardines.

This spring a crisis hit for Duke when there was a worldwide shortage of tinned sardines. There are not many supermarkets in Sicily that sell sardines in tins in any case, well why would there be when there is an abundance of fresh sardines in the surrounding seas? We cannot bring tins of sardines with us in our car on our road trips from London due to produce import regulations after Brexit. It was a big culinary problem for Duke.

There was only one thing for it, we would have to go and buy some fresh sardines for our baby boy !!!

It was the perfect opportunity to take Duke for his first visit to Sicily’s second capital city Catania and in specific to La Pescheria, the fish market. As a fish loving dog he was going to love to walking around there.

Buying fresh sardines would also be the perfect excuse to make Pasta con Sarde at home in my Sicilian kitchen plus I never need an excuse to visit Catania. I absolutely love wandering around this vibrant city.

Most people just think of Catania for its airport but the city is well worth a visit. Piazza del Duomo is the best starting point and is the main hub of the city. From the piazza you can easily reach Catania's most popular places and monuments. The city boasts colourful street markets and is a multicultural city and its fish market is beloved by many celebrity chefs.

From Piazza del Duomo you can find the fish market in Piazza Alonzo di Benedetto which is accessed down a lava staircase behind the Fontana dell'Amenano. On entering you can enjoy the ambiance and smells where the charismatic stall holders shout across to you enticing you to try the finest fish that has been caught that morning. Many lovingly let you sample their delicacies such as raw anchovies or sea urchins. These guys actually are in love with fish and want to share their love with you. The market is loved by the renowned English celebrity chef Rick Stein and was featured in his television series and book "Mediterranean Escapes" where he describes the market as "artistic" and "operatic" "with fish laid out like paintings". Jamie Oliver has also filmed in the market along with many other TV chefs and celebrities for both cooking programmes and travel documentaries. The market takes place between 7am and 2pm and we try to get there early as they do start packing up the stalls around 11am, well they have been up all night fishing and need to catch up on their beauty sleep.

It takes us around forty minutes to drive from Giardini Naxos to Catania’s city centre via the motorway. There is also a scenic coastal road that we sometimes take but on this mission we were on a time frame to buy Duke his sardines. So we set off from our Sicilian house with my cool bag packed with freezer ice blocks. We were lucky to find a parking space near Catania Centrale train station so we only had about a ten minute walk to the fish market.

I love the atmosphere of Catania’s fish market and it is always so hard to chose which stall to buy our fish from. As we wandered around the market we spotted Fernando Massana, the foodie content creator on social media known as “Rockin Kitchen Sicily”. Fernando was busy with some clients on one of his fab and fun street food tours. If you don’t follow Rockin Kitchen Sicily do it now!!!

There was also filming in progress for an Italian TV show.

We passed stalls heaped with slabs of fresh tuna and swordfish steaks, oysters, clams and mussels, sea bass, scabbard fish, squid and octopus, prawns, anchovies and SARDINES!!! There are also stalls selling little bags and sachets of Sicilian herbs, spices and seasonings for your fish.

We eventually settled on a stall where the lovely owner gave us a big welcoming smile as he came out to make a fuss of Duke. We saw that he was selling his sardines at the great price of €10 for 1kg. We would never be able to buy this amount of freshly caught fish for anything close to this price in London.

Perfect, we now had one happy hound.

Our stallholder weighed up our kilo of sardines as Duke waited patiently. He wrapped the fish up in some waxed paper and put them in a carrier bag and then he dropped them into my cool bag. It was a warm day so we needed to get our precious purchase back home pronto and into our fridge.

However, we did have time for me to pop into the Duomo of Catania to pay my respects to Saint Agata the Patron Saint of Catania and I could not resist buying some huge juicy cherries from a fruit vendor that I had seen parked by the train station. €3 for 1kg of volcanic cherries, an absolute bargain for such sumptuous and tempting cherries. Then we headed off back home to Giardini Naxos with me happy with my abundance of cherries and Duke happy with his abundance of sardines.

Later that afternoon I started the preparation of the sardines. Easy peasy, or so I thought …

In 2022 I had completed a cooking class in one of our favourite restaurants in Giardini Naxos called Ristorante Spizzicanu, the head chef at that time Andrea is a good friend and I had asked him if he could show me how to make Sarde Beccafico, “Of course” he said “Let’s do a cooking class together”.

Any small fish can be used to make beccafico and for my cooking class with Andrea we were using anchovies which are a good substitute for sardines. Anchovies are slightly smaller in size than sardines but have a slightly more intense flavour. We needed to butterfly the anchovies in order to stuff them with a filling of breadcrumbs, pine nuts, raisins and fennel and to butterfly the fish first would be the icky bit.

Chef Andrea showed me how to pull the head off the anchovy, ewwwww!!!, then how to run my finger down the anchovy towards the tail, gently pull it apart and gently pull out the bone, open the fish up and place it on a board with its tail on display. I found this quite tricky as wearing gloves the anchovies were slimy and slipping out of my hands so it took a few attempts to get the technique correct and Andrea assured me that any mistakes could be added to our pasta dish that we would create after which would be Pasta con Sarde. After this we took a small handful of our stuffing and rolled it into small oblong balls and encased it with an anchovy each side. Our little birds were then put in the oven to bake.

To make our pasta dish we heated some oil until it was very hot then added the anchovies and raisins then some pine nuts and fennel seeds and fronds. The ingredients were tossed around in the pan whilst the aroma of fennel filled the kitchen and we boiled the pasta then added it to the pan.

With my cooking class still fresh in my head I told myself that preparing a sardine would be as easy as preparing the anchovies that day. Was it? Noooooo!

As I mentioned it was a hot day and so my cooking attire consisted of a bikini top and shorts, such is life in Sicily and yes I know in hindsight I should have worn an apron.

Lesson number one learnt ✔️.

I took the sardines wrapped in the waxed paper out of our fridge and placed them on a large plate on my kitchen worktop. I underestimated how many sardines were in one kilo and as I unwrapped the waxed paper some slippery sardines seemed to jump out at me and slid all the way down the front of me as I tried to catch them and fell onto the floor. Eeeek!!!

My husband heard me screaming and ran into the kitchen and found me covered in fishy slime. We picked up the errant sardines and gave them a wash and I looked at him with despair and exclaimed “I can’t do it they are all staring at me”.

Duke looked at me hanging his head in shock.

Eventually I found the courage to prepare the sardines as Andrea had shown me with the anchovies but it really was hard work and not as easy as I first thought.

Eventually after twelve sardines I got my mojo and Duke finally had enough sardine fillets for supper. I heated some oil in a pan and fried off my not very professionally sliced fillets for him.

Any remaining sections of the sardines that were left over I fried off afterwards and put on a plate outside behind our house for our lovely feral cat community who crowded around eating their feast like a game of hungry hippos. I think they love me now.

Duke gave his pan fried sardines the paws up and his supply lasted him three days which meant that there was not enough to make Mr K his Pasta con Sarde.

Never mind !!!! At least Duke was happy !!!!

As we met up with friends following our successful mission to Catania fish market they would gasp as they heard about my encounter trying to prepare the sardines and exclaim “But why did you not ask the stall holder to clean the fish for you? He would have removed the heads, the bones and fillet them in seconds ready for cooking, they do it all the time!!!”

This conversation became on repeat each time as I would regale yet more friends with my fishy tale “But why did you not ask for the sardines to be cleaned????”

Lesson number Two learnt ✔️

Maybe the stall holder thought that I looked like a professional chef (I wish).

There is always something new to learn in Sicily and although making Pasta con Sarde was not a success at home in my Sicilian kitchen at least Duke enjoyed his gourmet sardines.

Here is a simple recipe for Pasta con Sarde

Ingredients:

150g Bucatini or Spaghetti

1 Onion finely chopped

1 Fennel Bulb

Half a Teaspoon of Fennel Seeds

150g of “cleaned” Sardine Fillets

30ml of Dry White Sicilian Wine

3 Tablespoons of Raisins

2 Tablespoons of Pine Nuts

Muddica

Cook the Pasta until “Al Dente” (firm to the bite)

Heat some Sicilian Olive Oil in a pan on a medium heat. Add the Onion, the Fennel and the Fennel Seeds and cook for five minutes until soft. Add the Sardine Fillets and the Wine. Let the Wine reduce and bubble then cover for a few minutes until the Sardines look cooked through. Drain the Pasta and add it to the Sardines along with the Raisins and Pine Nuts. Give it all a good stir and a shimmy in the pan then serve garnished with the Muddica.

Pasta con Sarde is always garnished with Muddica.

Muddica is the Sicilian word in dialect for Mollica which is Italian for breadcrumbs.

To make toasted Muddica as a garnish you need two slices of one day old bread torn into pieces, then bake them in the oven until they are completely dried out. Pulse them in a blender until they are the crumb size that you want. The breadcrumbs will keep in a sealed airtight container and are yet another staple ingredient in a Sicilian kitchen cupboard.

Using breadcrumbs in Sicilian cuisine is a classic example of “Cucina Povera” (poor kitchen) and were used as a substitute for more expensive garnishes like grated Parmesan cheese. Muddica represents a cultural tradition in Sicily. Making Muddica was also a resourceful way for families to use up old bread so that none was wasted or thrown away so that money was not wasted.

Bucatini is traditionally the pasta used for this dish, it looks like spaghetti but is hollow like a straw, but you can use any long pasta like spaghetti and linguine.

Buon appetito everyone !!!!!!

Ohhhhh and in case you are wondering how to ask to have your sardines cleaned in the market you should ask in Italian “Mi può pulire il sarde, per favore?” (Could you please clean the sardines for me).

Lesson number Three learnt ✔️

I hope you enjoyed my fishy tale

featuring a waggy tail

🎣🐕‍🦺

Here are some photos of Duke’s first visit to Catania

and a rather delicious Pasta con Sarde

that Mr K devoured at

Ristorante La Gondola in Palermo

If you would love to join a

Street Food Tour in Catania

or embark on a Sicilian Cooking Class

ask me for my trusted recommendations