CookEat Recipe
Sicilian Macaroni with Sardines and Fennel
Layered long pasta with fried sardines and an anchovy, fennel and tomato sauce, briefly browned in the oven.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 500 g long Neapolitan-style macaroni; 500 g fresh whole sardines before cleaning; 6 whole salt-cured anchovies, cleaned and boned; about 12 prepared anchovy fillets are an alternative; 300 g young wild-fennel greens sold as food by a reputable grower or retailer, not fennel bulbs; About 30 g plain flour for coating the sardines; About 100 ml olive oil for frying, plus 60 ml for the sauce; 100 ml plain tomato passata, or 1 tablespoon tomato paste diluted in 100 ml water; Salt and black pepper to taste.
Step 2
Use fresh food-grade sardines from a reputable fishmonger. Remove the heads, tails, guts and central bones, dividing each sardine into two fillets and checking for remaining bones. Dust lightly with flour. Fry in the frying oil until cooked through to 70°C and lightly golden, then drain and season with a little salt.
Step 3
Wash the young fennel greens thoroughly. Boil in water until tender, about 8–15 minutes depending on the stalks, then drain, squeeze out the water and chop finely. Use commercially supplied edible greens; do not identify or gather wild plants from a photograph.
Step 4
Cook the long macaroni without breaking it in a wide pan of boiling salted water until just tender. Drain well. Heat the oven to 210°C.
Step 5
Rinse excess surface salt from the whole salt-cured anchovies, clean them and remove the central bones. Heat the sauce oil in a pan and stir in the anchovies until they break down. Add the chopped cooked fennel, pepper, only a little salt if needed, and the passata or diluted tomato paste. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
Step 6
In an oven-safe serving dish or baking pan, arrange layers of macaroni, fried sardines and anchovy-fennel sauce, building a soft mound. Bake until the centre reaches 74°C and the top begins to brown lightly, roughly 10–15 minutes. Serve hot. Prepared anchovy fillets can be used in place of the six whole cured fish, with the same sauce method.
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