PASTA WITH SARDINES LEFT IN THE SEA

PASTA WITH SARDINES LEFT IN THE SEA
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Servings Prep Time
4people 10minutes
Cook Time
30minutes
Servings Prep Time
4people 10minutes
Cook Time
30minutes
PASTA WITH SARDINES LEFT IN THE SEA
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
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Votes: 0
Rating: 0
Rate this recipe!
Servings Prep Time
4people 10minutes
Cook Time
30minutes
Servings Prep Time
4people 10minutes
Cook Time
30minutes
Ingredients
Units:
Instructions
  1. In a saucepan that is about 2/3 full of water, pour a spoonful of rock salt or table salt. As soon as the water boils, add the wild fennel and stew for about 10 minutes. Peel and slice the onion.
  2. Pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a pan. Put it on the stove, pour the minced onion and the entire clove of garlic. Fry over low heat, then add the sliced salted anchovies to make them melt in the sautéed, stirring with a wooden spoon. Remove the clove of garlic, first add the extract and then the tomato puree and make everything blend together.
  3. Drain the cooked fennel with a fine mesh strainer or a perforated spoon, leaving in the pan the water that will be used to cook the pasta. Squeeze well to express surplus water, put on a cutting board and cut into small pieces with a knife. Pour the fennel in the sardine sauce and add the sfodelina and the cleaned and cut asparagus. Mix well and adjust salt.
  4. Bring the cooking water of the fennel that has been put aside to boil in the saucepan and pour the spaghetti. While the pasta is cooking, preheat the oven to 180°. Put a drizzle of olive oil and the breadcrumbs mixed with a spoonful of sugar in a baking tray. Toast well in the oven and put aside. As an alternative, you can toast the breadcrumbs in a small pan.`
  5. Drain the pasta when it is cooked al dente and put it again in the saucepan used to cook it. With a ladler, add about half of the sardine and fennel sauce, mix well to blend everything together. Put the pasta in the dishes, pour the rest of the sauce on it and, finally, sprinkle with the toasted breadcrumbs.
  6. In the farming culinary tradition, breadcrumbs are usually defined as the “poor man’s cheese” as it is used to season a lot of dishes that would have required expensive parmesan/grana padano cheese.

Recipe Notes

Contributor: Melchiorra Benigno, 76
Place: Belmonte Mezzagno
Personal Background:
She’s owner of agriculture enterprise of local fruits. She is mother of 3 sons and grandmother of 5 grandson. She loves cooking. Her secret: cook slowly with your time and – especially – love.

Recipe’s Personal Background How did you learn this recipe? She learnt this recipe from her mother, during the time she passed at home before being married and to leave her parents’ house.
Is there some memory/historical event connected to this recipe? No, but this recipe helps her to remind the time when she learned it.
Personal reference to tradition transmitted by relatives (preparing together, sharing, eating together etc.)? As a “pasta” recipe, this plate is strictly connected to the sharing moments during the meals at lunch with your family.
Mediterranean Background Any tradition this receipe is connected to? If yes, which one? Can you describe it? This recipe is linked to the farming culinary tradition of the Sicilian backcountry and perfectly symbolizes the Mediterranean diet, as:
– It contains fresh ingredients and is rich of nutrients: blue fish (anchovies), cereals (pasta), seasonal and local vegetables and herbs (wild fennel, wild asparagus, mountain vegetables etc.).
– It contains olive oil as a fat base
– Stewing and baking keeps the flavors intact and the nutritional intake balanced.
The recipe name is a playful pun: indeed, the “sardines left in the sea” means that they are missing in the dish, just like the famous dish called “Pasta with sardines” from which it is inspired and which was a variation invented by poor people.
Any Festivity this recipe is connected to? If yes, which one? Can you describe it? As many other celebration, also this meal is connected to Saint Joseph’s day (the 19th of March).
Season (season this food is linked to) This recipe is mainly prepared in March, when the ingredients useful to create this recipe are naturally available.
Ingredient Nutritional Importance Health Benefits
Salted anchovies 73% rich of proteins, 20% lipids and 7% carbohydrates. Rich of mineral salts (among them selenium, an effective anti-oxidant, calcium, phosphorus, iron and iodine) and vitamins (mainly A and B), easy to chew and digest (so it is great for the elderly and children) it contains also a very high level of omega-3, the fatty acids polyunsaturated have a positive action on the hearth and blood circulation, lowering the level of cholesterol.
Asparagus Made up of 30% proteins, 6% lipids and 43% carbohydrates. Asparagus contains saponins, polyphenol and high quantities of minerals, mostly potassium. It is useful for renal, hepatic and bronchial drainage, but also as a spleen anti-inflammatory.
Tomato Excellent source of fibre, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, potassium and manganese. It also contains vitamin E, thiamine, niacin, vitamin B6, folate, magnesium, phosphorus and copper. Due to its antioxidant power, tomatoes have a cardio-protective effect by reducing the levels of LDL cholesterol and decreasing blood pressure.
Extra virgin olive oil Made up 99% lipids, and minimally of vitamins, antioxidants and phytosterols. Being a source of lipids, amino acids and important triglycerides that make up the lipid bilayer membrane, olive oil is has multiple and important beneficial actions (also a mild laxative property).
Bread crumbs Made up of 86% of carbohydrates, 12% lipids and the rest 2% lipids. Nutritious and easily digestible it is the “long term fuel” basis of the Mediterranean diet.
White onion Very rich in carbohydrates, 82%, and they lack of lipids 3% and proteins 15%. Among the countless healthy properties for the body there are the diuretic and depurative ones.
Additional information
Is it suggested to eat this meal if you suffer from some disease? If yes, for which one? No pathology correlated to this dish.
What is the primary base with which your food is prepared? Is this a derivative of oil or another base? It is a balanced dish with no precaution to be taken in particular.
What nutrition related illnesses or deficiencies are common in your area? Are there holistic or nutrition based remedies connected to these aliments? It is a balanced dish with no precaution to be taken in particular.

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