Pasta con le Sarde

Tuesday night, I went to a St. Josephs Day dinner with my lady friend (she's Italian) at a friend's house. Last night on Chat, I was chatting about it, the special St. Josephs Day bread etc., and I mentioned how much I liked the Pasta con le Sarde and what was in it. One of the chatters, who had never heard of St. Josephs Day, that the thought of a pasta dish that contained sardines, raisins, pine nuts and tomatoes was making her gag. She suggested that I post about it here, because she couldn't believe someone would actually eat this. So here is a link to a recipe that seems similar to what we had on Tuesday:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sicilian-Style-Pasta-with-Sardines-106272
Does anyone else like this?

Howie, I don't know the dish but from reading the recipe I am 100% sure I would like it.

Then again, I'm one of the converted, who went from "no anchovies" to a real enjoyment of anchovies...

There is a "green sauce" from Piemonte that is basically half parsley and half anchovies. Yum...

I saw that recipe from Gourmet last weekend while I was helping Betsy "trim" the recipe files. Very good, we haven't done in ages.
We also liked this one, which we've done for a quick weekedn lunch a couple of times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/dinin ... ref=dining
I love sardines as an occasional treat (I think I would tire if I ate more than once every month or two), even the pedestrian ones are good, but the better Spanish/Portugese ones seem to be several steps above the average Polish/Moroccan/Canadian.

Now fresh sardines, they could be on my table every 2 weeks.

I've seen some recipes for Pasta con le Sarde using fresh sardines and have been on the lookout for them for just that purpose. Unfortunately, they're difficult to find around here. I'll have to try the one you've linked to, Howie. It sounds good.

OK, Betsy pointed out I was wrong, it wasn't the Gourmet recipe we've done,but a similar one from NYT (besides the more recent one with capers)
http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/11696/Pa ... Sarde.html

I have two or three copies of this recipe saved from different sources. It is my go to dish for late nights when I'm hungry and want something quick but satisfying. I have a similar one that uses tuna. I use a good quality canned tuna for this dish. Both are great and soul satisfying.

I'll be the lone bad guy here and say that I would eat the recipe using fresh sardines but would also gag using the canned version.

A wonderful dish. I recall a little place near my old apartment that served it as a house specialty.

It's all of Sicily on one plate: http://www.weareneverfull.com/pasta-con-le-sarde-sicily-on-a-plate/

I don't know whether this helps -- but I have 3 or 4 Asian supermarkets nearby (Chinese and Korean) and that's a really good place to find fresh sardines. The selection of fish tends to be very good at Asian markets, try 'em if you have one locally.

The recipe I posted uses canned sardines. Mario Batali's recipe calls for fresh. Pasta with Sardines

Frank -

I've tried a couple of the local Asian markets, but the best I found was frozen/thawed sardines. They didn't look good enough for this.

Back in the day, Monterey (not far from here) was a big sardine processing town, so one would think that fresh ones would be around. Maybe I just haven't hit on the right store at the right time.

Frank -

I've tried a couple of the local Asian markets, but the best I found was frozen/thawed sardines. They didn't look good enough for this.

Back in the day, Monterey (not far from here) was a big sardine processing town, so one would think that fresh ones would be around. Maybe I just haven't hit on the right store at the right time.

The restaurants around the Monterey Plaza still have fresh sardines on the menu. Makes me hungry just thinking about it.

Like the dish but not that stoked about the inclusion of raisins.

[Jenise]

This topic reminded me of a piece I saw on CBS' Sunday Morning just a few years ago about the closing of the last Sardine plant in the U.S. I couldn't find the video reportage, but did find a print article that's very informative.

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-201_162-6394365.html

Brings a tear to my eye.