Sicilian Bucatini With Sardines: Pasta Chi Sardi

This is one of the dishes associated with the city of Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily, although Sicilians beyond Palermo make the dish. Legend has it that an Arab cook invented the dish in the 800s (yes, 800s) on Sicily by using fish and wild fennel, both plentiful on Sicily.  

 

On Sicily, they have a type of wild fennel common to the island they use, but you'll likely have to settle for the fennel from your produce store or from your garden. Bucatini is a type of Italian pasta that is much like thick spaghetti, but with a hole running through the middle. There is an abundance of sardines in the waters off of Palermo, which is a port city in northwestern Sicily; thus, Sicilians use fresh sardines for this dish, but you can use canned sardines, and I use boneless and skinless sardines. I'm not a fan of having to pick bones out of fish, and I've found that many people who say they do not like fish, it is because of bones in the fish, not the taste of fish.

 

Ingredients (5 to 6 servings):

 

8 ounces bucatini

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

1/4 cup pine nuts

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup chopped fennel (including fronds), divided use

good pinch of saffron threads + 1 tablespoon tomato paste + 3 tablespoons water

3 anchovy fillets

two cans sardines (4.4 to 5 ounces each) 

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 

1/3 cup coarse breadcrumbs (panko is fine) toasted in 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

salt for the pasta water

If you use whole cleaned sardines, they will need to be butterflied and have the bones removed. Canned sardines should begin to sound better now. Haha 

Add the water, tomato paste and saffron to a cup or small bowl, stir and set it aside. In a skillet, heat the extra virgin olive oil over medium heat, then add the onion and saute until it begins to soften. Add the raisins, pine nuts, 1/4 cup chopped fennel, anchovy fillets; saute for 3 to 4 minutes, then add one can of sardines and cook for another 3 minutes, breaking up the sardines and anchovies (which will begin to dissolve) during that time. Now add the saffron, tomato paste and water mixture; stir well. In the meantime, cook the bucatini in boiling water, seasoned with the other 1/4 cup chopped fennel and the fronds of fennel and salt. Cook until nearly al dente. Remove the bucatini from the water with a slotted spoon or a sieve and add it to the skillet, then add 1 cup of the seasoned cooking water to the skillet and increase the heat to medium high. Add the other can of sardines (but don't deliberately break up these fish) and the ground black pepper. Stir frequently and cook until much of the liquid is gone (I used low heat). Use a small skillet to heat 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the bread crumbs and toast them until golden, stirring lightly, but constantly, to prevent the breadcrumbs from getting too dark or burning. Serve the bucatini and sardines with some of the breadcrumbs sprinkled over the top. 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Vigor (British spelling: vigour)- This word is related to "vegetable," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French, and it is distantly related to "watch" and "wake," words from the Germanic roots of English. "Vigor" goes back to Indo European "weg/wek," which had the notion, "to be active, to be lively. This gave Latin "vigere" meaning, "to be lively, to thrive." This produced the Latin noun "vigor" (accusative: vigorem), with the meaning, "liveliness, activity;" thus also, "strength." This passed to Latin-based Old French as "vigor" (also "vigur?"), and this then became "vigour," including in the Anglo-French dialect spoken in England, all with the meaning of "strength to exert oneself in activity." English borrowed the word in the early 1300s as "vigour," and later the American spelling returned to the Latin spelling "vigor."