Making spaghetti with sardines like a real starred chef: Ciccio Sultano’s recipe

The spaghetti with sardines they are a typical dish of Sicilian cuisine, also included in the list of traditional Italian agri-food products (Pat). But like cooking one star chef? There are some differences compared to the classic recipe but it always follows the right path: one dish simple and very tasty. The starred chef who prepares this first course for us is an exceptional Sicilian: Fat Sultan2 Michelin Stars with his Cathedral in Ragusa and chef of Janus to the W Rome, one of the most beautiful hotels in the Eternal City. The chef who has always embellished the culture of Sicily and the history of this splendid island, right in Rome, offers this simple and tasty spaghetti with sardines.

Ciccio Sultano’s spaghetti with sardines

The “starry” spaghetti with sardines is “un symphonic dish” according to Ciccio Sultano, author of this recipe. They are “my iHere’s to the Palermo recipe where the muddica atturrata, the toasted and seasoned bread is the acoustic part of the dish. Great aromas: wild fennel, pine nuts, saffron give the sardines that nobility which should always and in any case be recognized. There is little to add other than that spaghetti with sardines is a cornerstone of Sicilian cuisine, Italian And Mediterranean. An indispensable stamp on our passport”. Let’s see what we need to prepare them, the recipe is for 4 people.

Ingredients

• 480 g of drawn semolina spaghetti
• 500 g of sardines
• 400 g of fish broth
• 100 g of copper tomatoes
• 80 g of toasted breadcrumbs
• 20 g of capuliato
• 50 g of shallots
• 20 g of wild fennel
• 10 g of chopped anchovies
• 10 g of chopped capers
• 10 g of chopped pitted olives
• 10 g of pine nuts
• 10 g of soaked raisins
• 10 g of lemon juice
• 5 g of garlic
• 1 g of saffron
• parsley, dried oregano, basil, extra virgin olive oil and fresh chilli pepper to taste

There pasta with sardines by Ciccio Sultano it looks very inviting, is simple in appearance and is very creamy, like a carbonara. To have this effect, start with the preparation of the sauce. Clean the sardines by removing the head and central bone. Remove the bones from the belly and wash them in ice water. Open it in two, as if you wanted to make a beccafico. Of all half a kilo of sardines you need to keep 12 perfect fillets ranging baked in the oven at around 200°C for around 5 minutes and then coarsely chop the remainder. Now make a sauté with shallots, garlic, anchovies, capers, olives and capuliate. This is a traditional condiment of Sicilian cuisine based on dried tomatoes which is usually used to make a “capuliato pasta“.

Returning to the spaghetti with sardines: add the chopped fennel, the pine nuts, the raisins, the sardines and the copper tomato previously peeled and cut into julienne strips. Fry and soften with the coppery tomato and the fish broth infused with saffron. Bring to the boil, add salt and the sauce is done.

Now let’s move on to the sardines that go marinades with a salmoriglio composed of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, parsley, basil and chilli pepper. Salmoriglio is one traditional Sicilian recipe And Calabrian which is usually used to season grilled or grilled swordfish.

Finally we come to pasta: cook the spaghetti in plenty of salted water and then sauté in the pan with the sardine sauce and a good bit of extra virgin olive oil. Once the spaghetti has been plated, finish it individually with the muddica atturrata and the previously baked sardine fillets.