Italian Cities: Bari - Pasta With Sardines, Breadcrumbs and Capers

This pasta dish is very different from the tomato or cheese based sauces we're used to. I bought a different type of pasta for it too, a thick tube kind called Lunghi.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 slices bread

1 onion 

200g pasta

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 tablespoons capers

2 cans sardines

1 tablespoon parsley

Firstly, crumble up the bread to make large breadcrumbs. Fry these off in some olive oil until they are browned and crispy. Remove from the pan into a bowl for later.

Cook the pasta in some boiling, salted water until just cooked.

Chop the onion and saute it in the pan with some oil. Add the capers, lemon zest and sardines. Cook for a further 2 minutes to warm everything.

Drain the pasta and mix with the sardine mixture, tossing well to coat the pasta.

Serve with the breadcrumbs and parsley generously sprinkled on top.

I expected the taste to be quite strong with the capers and sardines but it wasn't. They went really well together and the olive oil in the sardines made everything stick to the pasta quite nicely. The best thing was the crispy breadcrumbs and a forkful of them mixed with the rest of the ingredients was lovely. The pasta was still quite stiff and unmovable even when cooked. Eating it was like wrestling with an octopus. I think the dish called for smaller tubes whereas these had swollen up quite a lot. I'd try it with spaghetti or tagliatelle instead. Still, overall it was a surprisingly tasty dish!