During my long spring stay in Sicily this year I wanted to do a few quiet things (I wrote about this back in a blog post in early May) and to learn how to make the classic Palermitan dish, pasta con le sarde, which uses ingredients from the classical world and has its origins in the Arab invasion of Sicily was one of them.

I did get to learn how to cook pasta con le sarde in the kitchen on the top floor of Palazzo Notar Nicchi with the lovely Maria Culletta and Giuseppe (Joseph) Orlando - the  custodians of Palazzo Notar Nicchi - on a sunlit day in June.

In the cool of the morning that day Maria and Joseph picked tender, wild fennel up on the Piano Battaglia road just outside of Polizzi; where the cooler heights grow sweeter, softer and more aromatic fennel. We cooked together and ate lunch on the terrace.

A pasta with ingredients from the classical world:

Sweet wild fennel is just one of the classic ingredients in this Palermitan dish, some of the others: currants, pine nuts, saffron, breadcrumbs, fresh sardines, onions, tomato passata and bucatini pasta have their roots in the classical world.

As Mary Taylor Simeti notes in her fabulous book, Sicilian Food pine nuts and fennel were popular in classical Roman times and were staples in the kitchen of the great Roman gourmet and food lover Apicius back in the first century AD. And, she adds that currants first hung in the gardens of the philosopher Alcinous in the second century AD.

Maria’s Method:

1. Wash the fennel, a few sprigs, cut off the ends of the stalks and keep the tender feathery pieces.

2. Toast breadcrumbs, about 120 grams (these Maria has made from bread a day old) until golden. Put them aside.

3. Heat about 120mls of olive oil in a frypan and toss in about 30 grams of pine nuts, 30 grams of currants/raisins, some thyme (saffron is normally used) and 2 tablespoons of  fresh tomato paste, some chopped onion and mix. Cook for about 10 minutes. Maria likes to add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar as well. Salt as needed.

4. Debone and remove the heads of the fresh sardines (Maria chose Porticello sardines from the Tyrrhenian coast) and wash gently under cold water. Put to the side.

5. Place the fennel into boiling salted water and cook until just tender. Keep the fennel infused water. Chop the blanched fennel into smaller pieces.

6. Add the cooked fennel and fresh sardines to the sauce, add tomato passata (about a cup) and mix gently as it simmers. Simmer for a few minutes. Maria uses homemade passata.

7. While the pasta is cooking al dente in the fennel infused water stir the sauce a little.

8. Once the pasta is cooked drain and place in a deep platter, pour the sauce on top and gently stir through. Serve hot with a generous sprinkle of toasted breadcrumbs.

The lunch on the terrace:

Maria cooked for four that day and used about ½ kilo of fresh sardines and a 500g packet of semola di grano duro pasta from Mazara del Vallo on Sicily’s African coast; bucatini no. 6.

The table was set on the terrace under large canvas umbrellas and we ate looking out over the rooftops to the mountains. It was 24 degrees celsius.

We has taken a bottle of Regaleali Bianco, a fresh, crisp white wine, from the cellar and enjoyed Maria’s exotic pasta con le sarde on the terrace of a palazzo high in the Madonie Mountains in the province of Palermo.

Salve,

Suzanne