Taste Show premium recipe
Italian cuisine
Medium

Pasta with Fresh Sardines | Italian Cooking Class

Pasta with Fresh Sardines is a light and delicious Sicilian dish based on fresh sardines. Cooked with tomatoes and pine nuts and crusty toasted crumbs it is both tasty and healthy. Served with pistachio-fennel pesto it is a particular culinary experience.

 

 

Pasta with Fresh Sardines | Italian Cooking Class
5 stars rating if you like it!
Done
close
Recipe
PRE TIME: 30 min
COOKING TIME: 15 min
TOTAL TIME: 45 min
2 SERVING
Ingredients:
  • 1520 oz. Fresh sardines fish whole or cleaned filet
  • For the crusty toasted crumbs:
  • 1 Bunch Parsley Italian
  • Fresh oregano leaves
  • 1 Clove Garlic
  • 8 oz. Panko crumbs
  • 1/4 cup Parmigiano grated
  • Favorite white wine to taste
  • 2 tsp. Salt/pepper
  • 1 tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil
  • For the pistacchio / fennel pesto (note: a larger quantity is prepared than what is needed for better blending, and it can be used in a multitude of ways):
  • 1 Pack Shelled pistachios
  • Small bunch Fresh fennel leaves
  • 3 tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil
  • Enough to coat the sardines filet All-purpose flour
  • Salt/pepper to taste
  • 1 tbsp. Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 ea. Garlic clove
  • Italian fresh chili in oil to taste
  • Small bunch of Green onion / scallion
  • 1 ea. Small yellow ripe heirloom tomato
  • 1 ea. Small green tomato
  • 1/4 tsp. Salt/pepper
  • Few Fresh basil leaves to taste
  • 2 oz. Pine nuts (possibly roasted)
  • 1/2 cup Saffron water
  • 1/4 tsp. Salt/pepper
  • 23 cup Boiling water
  • 2 cup Pasta
  • 1/2 ea. Radish
  • 1/2 cup Boiling pasta water
  • Grated Parmigiano or Pecorino or both grated together to taste
  • For the wet base:
  • Splash of a favorite white wine to taste
  • 1 oz. Saffron
  • Snap pea shots
  • Extra virgin olive oil
Directions:
Step 1
Step 1
1
Start by cleaning the sardine's intestines and remove the spine, fishbone, and head, as shown by Chef Enrico in this episode.
Step 2
Step 2
2
Put a pot full of water on the medium flame of the stove to cook the pasta. Water obviously must be boiling before throwing the pasta. Add a small 3 to 5 percent of salt to the water.
Step 3
Step 3
3
Toast pine nuts on the clean nonstick pan and set them aside.
Step 4
Step 4
4
Julienne the half radicchio in thin slices and set aside. Then lastly, slice the garlic thin.
Step 5
Step 5
5
In a small pot, leave put the water and the saffron and heat up on medium flame for a couple of minutes and set aside in the same pot, it will be used throughout the whole recipe or all towards the end. This step can be skipped by using more pasta water and by adding the dry saffron directly in the pan during the final cooking process of the pasta in the pan with the hot sauce.
Step 6
Step 6
6
Now start making the pistachio/fennel pesto: toast the pistachio for 10 minutes in the oven at 320 ºF /160 ºC conversion, then still hot throw the pistachios in a food processor and blend with a couple of fennel fresh leaves until desired consistency is reached. Note: in this case the longer we blend for and the more toward a buttery consistency we will go. Add salt to the pesto and set aside.
Step 7
Step 7
7
Now start making the crusty toasted crumbs: Put all the ingredients in the food processor and blend until a sandy consistency is reached. Now toast the bread crumb mixture in a nonstick pan with salt to taste.
Step 8
Step 8
8
Heat up a nonstick pan on a medium flame for a couple of minutes. Leave the pan in the heat while you take 2 or 3 of your fish fillets and coat them on both sides with flour.
Step 9
Step 9
9
Pour extra virgin olive oil into the pan and sear nicely the sardine fillets on both sides and set aside.
Step 10
Step 10
10
Now throw the pasta in the lightly salted water.
Step 11
Step 11
11
Add more extra virgin olive oil to the saucepan on the heat and add the garlic, tomatoes, chilis in oil, green onion, in the very hot saucepan, then sprinkle with some white wine and let cook for 5 to 8 minutes on medium heat.
Step 12
Step 12
12
After the time has passed add the pine nuts and radish and throw the halfway cooked pasta in the pan (after 5 minutes in the boiling water) with the sauce (add the dry saffron if you didn't make the saffron water) and ultimate the cooking of the pasta by sauteing carefully every couple of minutes, without breaking the large penne pasta, and by adding the pasta water a little at a time in the saucepan. Note: If you had previously made the saffron water then you can be alternating this water with the pasta water for the last part of cooking the pasta.
Step 13
Step 13
13
When a couple of minutes are left for the pasta add the grated cheese and keep sauteing regulating the sauce thickness with the pasta water.
Step 14
Step 14
14
Serve hot with previously seared sardines.
More Like This
Tuna & Avocado Tomato Salad Stack
Tuna & Avocado Tomato Salad Stack
5 min
Polpettone in Crosta – Meatloaf in Puff Pastry Crust
PREMIUM
Polpettone in Crosta – Meatloaf in Puff Pastry Crust
11 min
Ultimate Detox Southwest Chicken Soup
Ultimate Detox Southwest Chicken Soup
3 min
Pumpkin Spice Latte | Bedtime Drink
Pumpkin Spice Latte | Bedtime Drink
1 min
Keto Sheet Pan Salmon With Asparagus
Keto Sheet Pan Salmon With Asparagus
3 min
Zucchini Fritters
Zucchini Fritters
3 min
Low Carb Beef Stroganoff
Low Carb Beef Stroganoff
3 min
Beef Shish Kabob
Beef Shish Kabob
3 min
Reduce Stress See all