Pasta con le Sarde: Spaghetti with Sardines

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

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.....and after.

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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:

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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….

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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].

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