Directions
Pasta with sardines and pine nuts is a masterpiece of simple goodness: you will struggle to find a dish with a more spontaneous and amazing flavor in all Italian cuisine.
It is certainly not a gourmet dish, but sardines, real queens of poor cuisine, lend themselves to great interpretations, especially if used to season pasta.
Pasta with sardines and pine nuts has a Sicilian origin and is all played on the delicate contrast created between the sweetness of the pine nuts and the intense flavor of the sardines. You will make it in a few minutes and has very few calories, so if you need a delicious first course to open a fancy fish dinner, now you know what to do.
If you sprinkle with bread crumbs flavored with garlic oil, the recipe becomes a hymn to Mediterranean cuisine and the flavor takes off.
As pasta choose a short one of the same length of the fillets, like penne, rigatoni or sedanini.
Ingredients for pasta with sardines, pine nuts, and garlic bread crumbs
4 servings
- 380 grams of pasta
- 500 grams of sardines
- 120 grams of dry white wine
- 180 grams of pine nuts
- 100 grams of breadcrumbs
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 40 grams of extra virgin olive oil
- some fennel beards
How to prepare pasta with sardines, pine nuts, and garlic bread crumbs
The most boring part is the preparation of the fish: if you find the already filleted sardines, otherwise get ready for a bit of extra work.
Take a sardine in your hand and with a pair of scissors open the belly of the fish and remove the entrails, pushing with your thumb under fish entrails, then remove the head and open them like a book.
Wash the fish, then cook in a pan with a few tablespoons of olive oil for 3 minutes, deglaze with a drop of wine and set aside.
Toast the pine nuts in a pan greased with a veil of oil and season with a pinch of salt.
Cook pasta al dente.
Final phase: garlic bread. Put 6 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and fry the crushed garlic over low heat for 4 minutes. Throw in the breadcrumbs into the pan and fry for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Be careful not to burn the breadcrumbs, no more than 3 minutes.
Drain the pasta al dente, put it the pan with sardines, toasted pine nuts and finally sprinkle with the garlic bread crumbs. Add a drizzle of oil and some fennel beards or even chives.
Which wine to pair with pasta with sardines, pine nuts, and garlic bread crumbs?
We are going to uncork a very fragrant wine, with splendid floral suggestions like the Passerina from Dianetti winery.
If you prefer a cocktail, Mojito is fabulous with sardines.
