A great pasta dish for any occasion:
1. cut the heads of the sardines into small pieces. De-scale fish, rinse, dry, season with salt and sprinkle with juice of one lemon. Refrigerate.
2. rinse raisins, soak in 250ml water. Clean fennel, rinse fennel greens, set aside. Cut fennel in half lengthwise, remove hard core. Dice fennel 0, 5cm, blanch in boiling hot salted water. Rinse cold, drain well. Save the fennel cooking water.
3. rinse parsley, finely chop half of the leaves. Rinse anchovy fillets, dry, cut off. Peel garlic, chop finely. Grind the ingredients in a mortar with 4 tbsp. olive oil, the grated zest of half a lemon and a teaspoon of fennel seeds. 4.
Peel and finely dice the onion and sauté in 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add fennel, roast briefly at medium temperature. Lower the temperature. Add anchovy paste, raisins with about 125ml of soaking liquid, 3-4 tbsp of fennel cooking water and two tablespoons of pine nuts. Gently bubble.
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente, drain and add a little olive oil.
In the meantime, dry the sardines, flour them and roast them in 3 tbsp. olive oil for 2-3 minutes on each side. Season fennel with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Finely chop remaining parsley, coarsely chop fennel greens. Alternate pasta and fennel sauce on plates. Four sardines