For your kitchen, not just your screen.

Ingredients

• 400 g bucatini
• 400 g fresh sardines, cleaned and filleted (from about 600 g whole)
• 250 g wild fennel fronds (or the fronds of 2 fennel bulbs plus a small bunch of dill)
• 6 tbsp Castruriali extra virgin olive oil — Olive oil carries the whole sauce and a spoonful toasts the breadcrumbs.
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 anchovy fillets in oil
• 30 g raisins or sultanas, soaked in warm water
• 30 g pine nuts
• 0.2 g saffron, soaked in 2 tbsp warm water
• 60 g dried breadcrumbs
• salt and black pepper

Method

1. Cook the fennel. Boil the fennel in a large pan of salted water for 10 minutes. Lift it out, squeeze dry and chop. Keep the water: you will cook the pasta in it.
2. Toast the breadcrumbs. Toast the breadcrumbs in a dry frying pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, stirring, until golden. Set aside.
3. Make the sauce. Warm the remaining oil in a wide pan and cook the onion gently for 8 minutes. Add the anchovies and stir until they melt. Add the drained raisins, pine nuts, saffron with its water and the chopped fennel and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add the sardines. Add the sardine fillets and cook for 5 minutes, breaking them up gently with a wooden spoon. Season and add a ladle of the fennel water.
5. Cook the pasta. Bring the fennel water back to the boil and cook the bucatini until al dente. Drain, keeping a cup of water and toss with the sauce, loosening as needed.
6. Serve. Serve topped with the toasted breadcrumbs. No cheese.