An Italian Recipe: Bucatini con Sarde

Instructions

1. Fry the sardines in olive oil so that the meat separates from the bones. Let cool, and clean the sardines.
2. In a large and heavy skillet, sweat the onions with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Meanwhile, in a large pot, boil the fennel without salt for about 20 minutes. Take out and chop, reserving the water in which you cooked the fennel.
4. When the onions are done, add tomato paste and stir.
5. Add the sardines and the fennel leaves, and continue cooking at very low temperature with a lid.
6. Add the pine nuts and raisins.
7. Add some of the reserved water from the fennel pot and the saffron.
8. Add salt to the reserved fennel water, bring to a boil and cook the pasta (be sure to undercook it!). Take out the undercooked pasta, transfer it to the skillet, mix well, and transfer the whole thing to a baking pan/dish. Make sure that it’s not too dry.
9. Sprinkle with the breadcrumbs, cover with aluminum foil and bake at 300 F for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with more bread crumbs, and serve warm (not too hot).