Pasta con le Sarde
at our favorite restaurant in Praiano, Amalfi Coast....before

.....and after.

And here is my version.  I was so excited to make this!  The recipe is below.

In a previous blog, I discussed my cookie “history”. Well, believe it or not, I have a sardine history as well. As a small child, I grew up in the Canary Islands, back in the day before we worried about where our children were every second of the day. When I was about seven years old, I used to be invited to lunch quite often by a family of Spanish strangers. I was drawn to their doorstep by the great food smells emanating from within. I guess when I kept showing up around lunch time, they thought they should take me in. I remember being served sardines in tomato sauce on bread….and loving it. My mother would be mortified to know I dined with strangers like a stray cat, and to this day I haven’t told her.  Shh….

When we lived in Rome, we were lucky enough to experience many lovely weekend trips to the Amalfi Coast. In the tiny hillside, seaside town of Praiano we would often order Pasta con le Sarde or Pasta with Sardines, (along with the seabass baked in salt crust featured in a previous blog). It was always so incredibly rich, aromatic and flavorful making it necessary to perform la scarpetta at meal’s end. I have tried to replicate that recipe here to pretty good success. 

Here’s your list of ingredients:
Fresh sardines
Olive oil
Onion, chopped
One garlic clove, smashed
One anchovy fillet (jarred)
14-15 oz. can of Italian plum tomatoes in puree
Italian seasoning
Italian flat leaf parsley

Put a big pot of pasta water on to boil, and let’s get started:

A note on how many sardines to buy:  Sardines are very small fish to begin with, and after you clean and debone them, there’s simply not that much left. In this recipe, they’re all going to break down into the sauce anyway. I bought 10 for two generous portions. 

Our first order of business will be prepping the sardines. In Italy, the fishmonger will clean them, but he will leave the de-boning to you. Here, my fish guy wouldn’t do the cleaning, so….

First, chop off the head. Leave the tail on for the moment as it gives you something to hold on to. With your knife perpendicular to the fish skin, scrape gently in the opposite direction of the way the scales lay, to remove scales. This only takes a moment. I have spared you a photo of gutting the fish, but it’s a very simple process. Make a slice along the belly and wash out the entrails, leaving a nice clean fish body to work with. Dig your fingers under the spine at the tail end of the fish, and lift and pull the whole skeleton away from the body. Now the fish opens very easily, like a spineless book and you can trim off the tail and fins.  It is not necessary to remove the skin of the sardine.  Now that you have all your little fishes prepped, we can start on the sauce.

Heat some olive oil in a sauté pan.  Toss in some chopped onion and your smashed garlic clove.  Rub the garlic clove around in the hot oil to spread its flavor and discard it when it browns.  As the onions begin to soften and brown, toss in an anchovy fillet.  Anchovy fillets are very helpful to flavoring sauces.  They simply melt away into the sauce leaving behind a nice salty hit and adding a depth of flavor.

Pour in your can of tomatoes, giving each one a squeeze to release its juices and hasten the breaking down of the tomatoes into the sauce.

Now lay your sardines “open-book”, meat-side down on the sauce.  Use a large spoon to bring some sauce to the top to cover the sardines.  Let them simmer.  While the sardines are cooking, you can go ahead and start cooking your pasta, being sure to salt the pasta water generously before adding the spaghetti.

The sardines will cook very quickly and before long, it will be easy to start breaking them up with your cooking spoon.  Add a good pinch of Italian seasoning, and taste to see whether you should be adding some salt and pepper.  Just before serving, throw in some chopped Italian flat leaf parsley.  Remember to never throw out all your pasta water when you drain your spaghetti.  If your sauce has become too thick, adding a little starchy pasta water is the perfect way to thin it out a little. 

Add the drained spaghetti to the sardine sauce, toss and serve……..with a nice red wine, of course!  Buon appetito!

Would you like to eat Pasta con le Sarde in Praiano? That can be arranged. Drop me a line at [email protected].

The first time I had this dish was in lovely Praiano, a gem in the necklace of stunning coastline that is the Amalfi Coast.  The Amalfi Coast is one of those places where upon arrival, you pull off to the side of the road, lean over the rail and try to take in its beauty; try to breathe it in deeply; try to infuse it into your skin in case you never see it again.  The small towns, cascading from mountain tippy tops to the ocean.  The colorful boats bobbing on see-through blue waters.  Purple bougainvilleas, giant yellow lemons, pink-washed stucco buildings.  Sigh.  Oh, I was supposed to be writing about fish.  Sorry..... 

When the waiter rolled a trolley up to our table containing a large molten lump of salt, I wasn’t sure what to think.  With a heavy spoon, he thumped the top, and the whole thing cracked open.  Buried inside was a beautifully cooked sea bass.  He quickly brushed away the coarse grains of salt, and with quick, deft hands, skinned and de-boned the fish onto our plates lickety-split.  Then he grabbed a nearby bowl, gave the contents a swirl, and drizzled a wonderfully seasoned olive oil over our pieces of fish.

Upon taking a bite, I couldn’t help but close my eyes and groan.  The fish was soooo tender and moist.  Considering it had been covered in salt, it was not salty.  It was in fact perfectly seasoned.  The olive oil topping was a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, fresh mint and a pinch of red pepper flakes.  This golden dressing made our fish glisten, and only added another note of flavor to what was already a heavenly dish.

Here’s your list of ingredients: (for two people)
Sea bass, whole (cleaned by your fishmonger, but head, tail, and skin definitely left on)
Lots of coarse salt

Olive oil, about ¼ c.
Balsamic vinegar, about ½ T.
Fresh mint, chopped, to taste
Red pepper flakes, to taste

Let’s get started:
Preheat the oven to 350.

In order to not waste, or have to use too much coarse salt, it’s best to use a pan that fits your fish as perfectly as possible.  Since I rarely have the exact size pan I need, I just improvise as you see in the pictures.  I have baked as many as three fish at one time in a 13 x 9 pan.  But in this particular instance, I was only baking one fish, and didn’t have a smaller pan to fit. So you will see that I’m simply “building” my own pan with tin foil.  So simple.
Once you have your pan “built”, pour a layer of course salt to cover the bottom of your pan; a bed, for your fish to lay on.  Rinse the fish, pat it dry with paper towels, and lay it down on the bed of salt.

Now, you just cover, and I do mean cover, the fish with more salt.  Really.  Until you can’t see the fish any more.  Really.  I mean it.  Wet your hand under the faucet, and flick drops of water over the mound of salt covering the fish.  Pop it in the preheated oven, set the timer for 30 minutes. Now you have the time to mix together the remaining ingredients in a small bowl.

After 30 minutes, take it out of the oven.  If you poke the salt mound with your finger, you will find that it’s hardened into a crust.  This dish is very forgiving.  If the rest of your dinner isn’t done, the fish won’t mind sitting there for another 10 or 15 minutes.  It won’t overcook, and it will stay nice and hot.  When you’re ready, we’ll start with the unveiling and serving.  

Okay, here comes the fun part!  The skin of the fish has kept the meat of the fish from absorbing too much salt, so it’s important that you keep the salt away from the meat of the fish as you are deboning.  Crack the crust, and brush as much salt away from the surface of the fish as you can.  

With a fork or knife tip, break the skin of the fish.  It will peel right off, and you will instantly see how moist the fish is inside.  

Peel off the top layer of skin, and remove the top half of the fish meat to a plate. Now that you’ve exposed all the bones, you can remove them in pretty much one piece.  Gently peel all the bone structure away.  What you’re left with is the bottom half of the fish meat and the bottom half of the skin.  With your fork, remove this second half of the meat from the remaining skin, to the second dinner plate.

Now, all that’s left to do is to give your “dressing” in the bowl a swirl with a spoon before drizzling it over the fish chunks.  I think you’ll find the fish to be moist, flaky, perfectly seasoned, and oh, so delicious.  This is one of those dishes that appears elegant and difficult, but in reality is so simple and truly delicious.  Buon Appetito!

And every time I make it, I think of Praiano.  Golden sunsets, warm waters, glistening suntanned skin, rocky shores, cactus, watermelon granita, buffalo milk mozzarella, Ferdinando’s Beach, striped lounge chairs, men in Speedos (which in Italy,  is usually a good thing).