My speedy sardine pasta recipe with caper gremolata and crunchy pangrattato makes another fast pasta with canned fish. This quick and easy spaghetti with tinned sardines, gremolata with capers, and a simple traditional pangrattato of crunchy breadcrumbs is a pasta dish that’s loaded with texture, flavour and fragrance. Best of all, it comes together in minutes.
This sardine pasta recipe uses the gremolata recipe I recently shared to make one of my new favourite pasta recipes. It’s a pasta dish that tastes of the sea – it’s delightfully fishy, a little salty, a lot zesty, and has loads of texture and aroma.
If you enjoyed our tuna pasta recipe with scallions, capers and fresh herbs, you’ll also love this pasta. It’s what we call ‘same same but different’ in Southeast Asia. And if you’re a fan of canned fish (I adore the stuff), try our recipes for a sardine salad with capers, celery, cos lettuce, and a mustard dressing, my Russian mimosa salad with tuna, this fancy sardines on toast recipe. and Terence’s ultimate tuna melt.
If you’re looking for more quick and easy pasta recipes, try this aromatic lemon pasta recipe for pasta al limone, this creamy tomato pasta sauce with gnocchi recipe, penne Bolognese recipe for a ‘cheat’s Bol’, this asparagus, mushrooms and bacon gnocchi recipe, our spaghetti pangrattato recipe, this cherry tomato feta pasta recipe, bacon and mushroom pasta, and fusilli with a creamy pumpkin pasta sauce.
If you’re enjoying this easy pasta recipe series, which was completely unplanned – I started the series as I was so busy with a guidebook deadline approaching, yet still had to make dinner for my mother, so I had to create and cook quick and easy meals – then do check back, as I’ll be sharing more of these speedy pasta recipes.
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Sardine Pasta Recipe With Spaghetti, Caper Gremolata and Pangrattato
This sardine pasta recipe incorporates recipes for a couple of classic Italian condiments that I’ve shared recently, a recipe for gremolata (link above) and a super simple version of the crunchy pangrattato recipe I shared (link below), as there are some overlapping ingredients.
A classic gremolata is made with fresh parsley, lemon zest and garlic, although you can experiment with substituting herbs, add spices, or add ingredients such as anchovies and capers, which makes a Southern Italian style gremolata. I added capers to the gremolata I shared here.
The recipe for pangrattato, also known as mollica di pane in Italy, which I shared, makes a version of the condiment of crunchy breadcrumbs that includes fresh parsley, lemon zest and grated Parmigiano, so you can see where the overlap of ingredients is with the gremolata.
Pangrattato in its simplest form is just toasted stale breadcrumbs, so when I made that pangrattato I also set aside some plain crispy breadcrumbs, which I poured into a mason jar, and I’ve used those in this sardine pasta recipe.
I think both recipes show you how these traditional Italian condiments can really enliven simple pasta dishes, injecting them with so much flavour, texture and perfume.
Tips to Making this Sardine Pasta Recipe With Spaghetti, Caper Gremolata and Pangrattato
I only have a few tips to preparing this canned sardine pasta recipe with caper gremolata and crunchy pangrattato as it couldn’t be easier, particularly if you’ve got a pantry stocked with canned fish, jarred capers and dried pasta.
You can really use any kind of dried pasta in this sardine pasta recipe, but I love long pastas like spaghetti, bucatini, linguini and fettuccini.
Use the best quality canned sardines you can source and afford. Portuguese sardines are fantastic, and while the finest canned sardines are quite expensive, I used Minerva sardines from Portugal and they were terrific, nice and firm, full of flavour, and in a delicious olive oil that I used in the pasta.
A tip: keep jars of briny capers and anchovies, along with canned fish and seafood, in your pantry, such as tinned tuna, canned salmon, tinned smoked trout, and smoked oysters and you’ll never go hungry and can always pull together a delicious pasta in no time.
Apart from good sardines, you’ll want great quality extra virgin olive oil, as you’ll want to drizzle some of that on at the end.
And don’t forget, as I always say: we all have different palates, so taste and adjust the recipe to suit your taste. This sardine pasta is nothing if not versatile, so tweak it and make your own. Serve with a refreshing salad and crusty bread to mop up the fishy oil and juices.
Sardine Pasta Recipe With Spaghetti, Caper Gremolata and Pangrattato
Ingredients
- 250 g spaghetti - or bucatini or liguini
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil - divided
- 120 g sardines in olive oil
- 2 tbsp capers - divided
- 2 tbsp gremolata - divided, see recipe
- 2 tbsp pangrattato - divided, see recipe
- 2 lemon slices or wedges
Instructions
- Put a large pot of salted water on the stove to boil. When it’s on a rolling boil, add the spaghetti and cook until al dente according to the packet instructions.
- A minute before the pasta is ready: in a deep frying pan or skillet over medium-high heat, add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Use tongs or a pasta fork to transfer the spaghetti to the frying pan, along with a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water.
- Add the sardines and the oil they’re in, half the gremolata and pangrattato, and stir through, breaking up the sardines a little, so everything is evenly distributed. Use tongs to distribute the spaghetti between serving plates.
- Sprinkle on the rest of the gremolata and pangrattato, drizzle on the remaining extra virgin olive oil, garnish with lemon slices or wedges to squeeze onto the pasta, and serve immediately with bowls of gremolata and pangrattato on the table.
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make our sardine pasta recipe in the comments below as we’d love to hear how the recipe turns out for you.
