I am convinced that some beautiful pagan goddess descended from Mt. Etna cradling two bowls of pasta in her arms– a gift to the south Italians for their ceaseless worship - the pasta puttanesca from Naples (which can be loosely translated as theWhore's Pasta. I guess we know which goddess brought the Italians that one) and pasta con sarde from Sicily.

If you're a stranger to south Italian cuisine, I can think of no better place to start than with these two pastas. Each are incredibly unique and satisifying. Nothing lifts my spirits like a good puttanesca, but it took me a long time to get up the courage to make it. The anchovies made me squeamish and I was convinced that my version would be a disaster, forever turning me off a discovery I had come to cherish and love. But one day my cravings (and you will be subjected to irresistible cravings for puttanesca if you let too much time pass between fixes) got the better of me and I tried to make it at home. And guess what - it was good. Since then I have perfected the proportions in my puttanesca to make a pasta that I love.

Pasta con sarde was another story altogether. Sardines and anchovies, raisins, pine nuts, onions and fennel. That seemed a lot easier to screw up.

But I decided, what the hell...Froggy was my guinea pig. This is what I did.

Spaghetti Con Sarde (serves 2)

What you need:

Pasta

1 lb fennel

1 50g can sardines

1 115g can anchoves

½ cup raisins

1/3 cup pine nuts

2 onions, diced

dash of saffron powder, mixed with two tablespoons of water.

1 cup breadcrumbs

Notes on Ingredients

Pasta – The Sicilians eat this with bucatini, a lone hollow spaghetti-like pasta. I couldn't find it, so I used whole wheat spaghetti.

Fennel – The authentic recipe calls for wild fennel, however, chances are that you will not be able to find wild fennel where you live. You can use the leaves from bulb fennel. However, you might have to find your grocer and ask him for them because I find that grocers often cut the leaves off the fennel before putting them out for sale. If you can't find fennel leaves, you can use the bulb.

• to prepare the fennel, you need to soften it. I dropped by fennel bulb in boiling water. Reducing the heat to medium, I let it simmer for around 15 minutes. You want it to be very tender.

• Remove from water, let cool and dice.

• You should save the now fennel flavoured water to cook the pasta in.

Sardine – Again, the Sicilians swear you need you used fresh sardines. I used canned.

Anchovies – Again, you should use fresh, I used canned.

Raisins – Soak the raisins for about 20 min in warm water

Bread Crumbs – Purists will tell you to toast your own breadcrumbs in a pan and mix in a couple of tablespoons of sauteed onions. I had these 'toast' things that people eat here for breakfast. I just rolled those out with a large can.

1) In a large saute pan, saute onions until they are translucent on medium heat.

2) Add the anchovies and stir, cooking until the anchovies dissolve.

3) Add the chopped fennel and cook for about 5 minutes.


4) Add the raisins, crushed sardines, pine nuts, and saffron solution. Cook


until the liquid dissolves.

The pasta should be cooked simultaneously in the fennel water. When the pasta is almost done, taste the sauce. If it is too salty ( from the fish) or the saffron taste is too strong, add some of the pasta water, and stir.

Strain pasta, toss with sauce and generous serving of breadcrumbs. Serve immediately.

And the result ….well let's just say I impresed myself. It was perfectly balanced. I might experiment next time with adding more sardines just before it's served.

We drank it with a 2007 Saint-Bris. Saint-Bris is the only appellation in Burgundy that can use Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Saint-Bris has some of typical sauvignon blanc characteristics while keeping a bit of fruit.

But I've been thinking about the saffron in the recipe and how well this pasta would hold up served next to a Gewurtztraminer.

Well, I let you know how it goes.