Real African Dishes: [MC-AllEthnic-Recipes] Pasta With Sardines, Bread Crumbs and Capers

Thursday, June 23, 2011

[MC-AllEthnic-Recipes] Pasta With Sardines, Bread Crumbs and Capers

* Exported from MasterCook *

Pasta With Sardines, Bread Crumbs and Capers

Recipe By :Mark Bittman
Serving Size : 6 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : LowFat (Less than 25%) Seafood

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
Salt
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup bread crumbs -- ideally made from stale bread
1 onion -- chopped
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound long pasta -- like perciatelli
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons drained capers
2 cans sardines -- packed in extra virgin olive oil (about 1/2 pound)
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley -- plus more for garnish

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Put half the oil (2 tablespoons) in a medium skillet over medium heat. When it's hot, add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring frequently, until golden and fragrant, less than 5 minutes, and then remove. Add the remaining oil and the onion to the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until just tender; drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Turn the heat under the onions to medium-high and add the lemon zest, capers and sardines; cook, stirring occasionally, until just heated through, about 2 minutes.

Add the pasta to the sardine mixture and toss well to combine. Add the parsley, most of the bread crumbs and some reserved water, if necessary, to moisten. Taste and adjust seasoning, garnishing with more parsley and bread crumbs.

Yield: 6 servings.

Per serving: 481 calories; 18 g fat (4 g saturated fat; 34 percent calories from fat); 61 g carbohydrates; 38 mg cholesterol; 279 mg sodium; 17 g protein; 2.5 g fiber.

Author: At least once a week I scrounge for dinner without shopping, a cooking style that I suppose is counter to current trends but one that admirably displays the benefits of my dedication to pantry stocking.

Often, the cooking centers on pasta. And although I repeat favorites, I'm gradually concluding that there are no limits to appealing combinations of dry-pasta-and-whatever, many of them originally created in southern Italy.

This one is made with no fresh ingredients save for an onion and a little lemon -- both pantry staples -- and some parsley if it's around. In fact, this is a meal made from a box, some jars and a can.

The box is pasta (and maybe bread crumbs, but if you have stale bread around, so much the better), the jars are capers and oil, and the can is sardines. The sardines are not only inexpensive and meaty but also one of the few fish not (yet) on anyone's "watch" list, so unlike most seafood they can be eaten without guilt.

Like so many pasta dishes, this one barely involves cooking. You do have to brown the bread crumbs, a task that requires attention to make sure you catch them when they're golden-brown. But once those are done, the dish takes as long to make as the pasta takes to cook.

The sauce begins with the softening of onions in oil and finishes less than 10 minutes later with the addition of the lemon, capers and sardines. When the pasta is ready, it's all tossed together, along with some of the pasta's cooking water for moisture, the toasted bread crumbs and the parsley, if you have it.

There are few finer ways to reap the rewards of a well-stocked cupboard.

Cuisine:
"Mediterranean"
Source:
"Detroit News, April 29, 2010"
S(Formatted by Chupa Babi):
"June 2011"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 413 Calories; 11g Fat (24.6% calories from fat); 12g Protein; 65g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 6mg Cholesterol; 132mg Sodium. Exchanges: 4 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 26045 802 902478 0 0