Sicilian Sardine Sauce

From Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazen

4-6 Servings

8 oz, net weight, drained choice canned sardines packed in olive oil
2 c finocchio leaf tops or 1 3/4 cups fresh wild fennel
salt
1 Tb black raisins
1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
2 Tb chopped onion
4 flat anchovy fillets, chopped fine
1/3 c pignoli (pine nuts)
1 1/2 Tb tomato paste, dissolved in 1 c luke-warm water together with a large pinch of powdered saffron or 1/2 tea crumbled saffron threads
Black pepper, ground fresh from the mill
1 to 1 1/2 lbs pasta (best with bucatini or perciatelli, but thick, hollow tubes work)
1/2 c dry, unflavored bread crumbs, lightly toasted in the oven or in a skillet

Wash the finocchio tops or the wild fennel in cold water. Bring 4-5 quarts of water to a boil, add salt, and as the water resumes boiling put in the greens. Cook for 10 minutes with a cover set on askew. Off heat, retrieve the cooked fennel greens using a colander spoon, but do not pour out the water in the pot. Save it for cooking the pasta later.

When cool enough to handle, squeeze the greens gently in your hand to force moisture out, then chop them.

Soak the raisins in several changes of cold water for no less than 15 minutes, then drain them and chop them.

Put water in a saucepan and bring it to a lively simmer.

Choose a saute pan that can subsequently accommodate all the ingredients except the pasta. Put in the olive oil and chopped oniion, and turn on the heat to medium. Cook the onion, stirring, until it becomes translucent. Place the saute pan over the pot with simmering water, add the anchovies, and stir them constantly with a wooden spoon, mashing them from time to tiem with the back of the spoon.

When the anchovies are nearly dissolved to a paste, return the pan to the burner over medium heat, add the greens, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add the pignoli, the chopped raisins, the tomato paste and saffron solution, salt and a few grindings of black pepper, and turn over all ingredients to season them evenly. Continue to cook at medium heat, letting all the liquid in the pan bubble away. (The sauce can be prepared several hours in advance up to this point.) Add sardines, turning them over in the sacue two or three times, then remove from heat.

Bring the water in which you cooked the fennel greens to a boil, add a little salt, and in it cook the pasta.

Toss the sardine sauce with the cooked drained pasta. Add the bread crumbs and toss again. Allow the pasta to settle several minutes before serving.