ASG Recipe: Sardines Fettucine with Lemon Zest, Shallots and Roasted Pine Nuts

Please also see our YouTube or Instagram short that covers a quick visual. We also recommend saving your Fishwife box since it makes a great table decoration and your guests will know right away which one you used for the dish.

Ingredients:

1 can of Fishwife Sardines with Preserved Lemon

1 box fettucine or linguine

1/2 cup of pasta liquid

6 cloves of garlic, crushed, then sliced

1 small yellow onion, finely diced 1/2 of a scallion, finely diced

1/2 cup of freshly squeeze lemon juice

1 tsp of lemon zest

1 tsp of lime zest

1/3 cup roasted pine nuts

1 tbsp pesto to build up some body

handful of chives, cut in 2 cm segments

1 cup cilantro, chopped

Olive oil

Salt

Instructions:

Cook pasta to al dente in a pot with salted water - before straining, reserve 1/2 of of the liquid. Strain remainder of pasta and we mix in 1 tbsp of olive oil and fork toss the pasta to keep it from clumping.

While pasta is cooking, prep your aromatics like the onion, garlic, scallion, lemons, chives and cilantro. Roast the pine nuts.

[Roasted pine nuts:

These should be prepared before so they are prepared for the mixture. We recommend roasting the pine nuts in a cast iron skillet. Put them in a cold skillet without any oil, bring to medium heat and constantly stir until the nuts get a warm, brown coat on both sides (preferably). Allow them to cool and put them aside.]

In a large sauté pan over medium heat, add the olive oil, onions, and garlic and sweat them until partly translucent. Add pesto, pasta water, and lemon juice. Allow it to simmer, not boil or to reduce too quickly.

Add half of the pine nuts and add all sardines (drained) to the sauce. Break the sardines into pieces as you stir.

There are two ways to serve - you can separate the pasta for plating, then add your sardines reduction to the side, top with cilantro, chives, a dash of olive oil and a splash of lemon juice.

The second way is to combine the pasta into the pan, keep on medium heat, and cook until the sauce has coated the noodles evenly. Add the cilantro at the end. Plate and top with chives and a splash of lemon. Salt and pepper to taste.

Either way, garnish with the other half of the pine nuts. Some may like additional olive oil at the end. We recommend a robust oil.

Recipe inspired by: https://eatfishwife.com/blogs/recipes/sardine-pasta-with-lemon-zest-and-pine-nuts