Sweet & sour sardines & greens
We’ve recently gone on a sardine bender. Joey read a book on healthy fats and now we’re ingesting omega 3 rich foods like there’s no tomorrow. Undeniably, there is really only one true sardine recipe and that’s “on toast” (ideally mashed up with heaps of Sarson’s vinegar first), but should you be looking for another, this pasta number is very good.
If you prefer more intense flavours with a lower “flavoursome bits-to-bulky stuff ratio”, keep the broccoli and kale as a side option and only dress the pasta with the zippy, zingy, sweet & sour sardine medley. And if you love bowl food style dishes where everything is thrown in together, blanch the broccoli and kale with the pasta for the final 2 minutes of cooking time, as suggested here.
Use any pasta you wish. We opt for Hodmedod’s Emmer & Fava Bean pasta as we love the fibre and protein it packs into our bowls.
Prep time: 10 mins.
Cooking time: 15 mins.
This recipe serves 2.
Ingredients:
pasta sufficient for 2
½ broccoli
2-3 generous handfuls kale
140 g drained sardines (2 small tins)
2 tbsp olive oil
2 shallots
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp sultanas or currants
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
16 pitted black olives
1 lemon
2 tbsp cider vinegar
large handful flat leaf parsley
generous pinch flakey sea salt
Method:
If you need to toast your pine nuts, start with this.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil, then throw in the pasta and set a timer as per the packet’s instructions.
Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the shallots into thin half moons, and peel and finely slice the garlic.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan or frying pan over a gentle heat and fry off the sliced shallots for 6 minutes, stirring often. After 6 minutes add the sliced garlic and continue to stir-fry things gently for 4 minutes.
Prep the broccoli into florets, and roughly chop the kale, removing the tough central stalk if you wish. Add this to the pasta water for the final 2 minutes of cooking time.
Open and lightly drain the sardines, halve the olives, and roughly chop the parsley.
Now add the drained sardines, sultanas or currants, toasted pine nuts, black olives, zest of 1 lemon, juice of ½ lemon, 2 tablespoons of cider vinegar, chopped parsley and sea salt to the shallots, stir well and and keep the heat as low as possible just for 2 minutes to mingle and warm through, then turn off.
Drain your pasta, broccoli and kale well, and mix this with your flavoursome sardine medley. Toss well to coat everything evenly in the rich oils and bright acidity. Tuck in immediately.