Pasta With Bread Crumbs and Anchovies, Sicilian Style Recipe (2024)

"To make one and one-quarter cups of toasted coarse bread crumbs, coarsely grate crustless day-old Italian semolina bread."
"⅓ cup Sicilian olive oil or substitute a good fruity, green olive oil"
"½ pound spaghettini, preferably imported, made of 100 percent durum wheat"
Dear Lord. I expect it's better this way, but sometimes these recipes seem designed to taunt people with limited time or plebeian supplies.

Why not throw in some capers, lemon zest and juice, mushrooms, proscuitto, etc? You get the drift. It is no longer the same dish which is so simple, yet delicious in its simplicity.

I make a very similar dish often, but I use lots of garlic - I won't say how much for fear of shocking the innocent. I usually use roasted garlic - I sometimes roast as many as 15 heads at a time, and freeze most. I'm not a vampire, so I can get away with it.

It is 4 oz. of anchovie fillets, RINSED well in cold water, which removes a great deal of the saltiness. (If you are worried about too much salt, soak the fillets in milk for five minutes after rinsing, the rinse again.) the flavor changes a great deal when cooked. It is phenomenal.

My mother was Sicilian and made this dish often. She would rinse the anchovies in red wine vinegar first before adding to the pan. She would of also laughed at the meager amount of garlic and red pepper flakes called for in this recipe. We liked food HOT in our house and this dish was often served with a plate of roasted Italian long hot peppers, salad, and a loaf of crunchy Italian bread. There would be a piece of pan fried haddock if it was a Friday night dinner as well.

Points for use of plebeian!

This might seem like a bridge too far for folks who say they don't like anchovies, but we thought it was awesome. I liked using chopped bread (like small croutons) that I had made vs finer crumbs. I liked a bit of capers too but not necessary. Lovely, will definitely make it again. Great emergency dinner too...we always have pasta, garlic, anchovies on hand.....

This pasta dish is very similar to a classic prep for pasta with Broccoli that uses melted anchovy+ garlic as the basic sauce; just cook the broccoli (florets) lightly, retain water, and use for cooking the pasta; then toss cooked, drained pasta and florets in the anchovy/garlic sauce in the cooking skillet to seal in the flavors. Can add a dash of grated parmesan, if desired.

Made this for Thursday night supper yesterday and followed the recipe exactly. DELICIOUS! Very easy to prepare ( even after a couple glasses of wine!). I doubled the recipe and it made a gracious plenty. Four tins of anchovies seemed like a lot, but once they melted into the olive oils the nutty flavor was outstanding. Next time I might add a handful of toasted pine nuts and maybe even some golden raisins!

This is delicious but PLEASE don't make it with those cheap, low-quality anchovies in the tin. Get high quality ones in a large tin or glass jar. You will have a much more delicious dish.

Agree with GI Doc here. Sometimes less is more.

I blanch a pound of broccoli rabe for a minute, drain it, roughly chop it, and add it to this recipe. Even more delicious!

Why rinse the anchovies, as there is no added salt in the recipe, I never rinse mine, and also use the anchovy oil.

Substitute italian tuna for the anchovies!

Thought I wouldn't like this - too many anchovies - but I loved it and had no trouble polishing off my plate and then sneaking bites off my husband's. I was very generous with garlic and pasta water and both helped. I also skimped a little on toasted bread crumbs (used what I had around) and was sorry. The dish needs all the toasted bread crumbs as counterpoint to strong anchovy flavor plus they add texture.

Very yummy, watch the salt1/29/2022

Try doubling the garlic

I enjoyed this pantry pasta - I made it with leftover linguine (fortunately had reserved a bit of pasta water too), but it was still so salty (I rinsed the anchovies and even used less than called for)!Not inedible, but next time I will follow the solid advice of fellow commenters. Conceptually I love this recipe - garlic oil, anchovy sauce, and breadcrumbs over noodles YAS. I am going to continue tweaking but for right now it is a great recipe to have in my back pocket.

I have made this adding pieces of walnut with the anchovies. Only cooking the pasta until it's mostly done then finishing it off stirring it in the olive oil/pasta water mix over low heat, letting it absorb it all. The texture of the pasta is chewy and the taste quite satisfying.

I doubled this recipe and it was extremely good. It fed a group of 6. I used two nicer jars of anchovies and two cheaper tins, and I think using better anchovies (at least partly) was a good call. I added a bit of salt and pepper to the breadcrumbs which I felt was necessary- otherwise they would have been pretty bland. Served alongside blanched baby broccoli doused in lemon juice, sea salt flakes and olive oil. It was nice to have something more acidic as a side. Overall, highly recommend!

Unless you love the taste of anchovies do not make this dish. I tried it with half as many anchovies and although all the elements were cooked properly it still tasted like anchovies and we wound up throwing it away. I thought the amount of oil in relation to the 2 ounce can of anchovies would be a much milder tasting sauce.

For the bread crumbs, I recommend this method from the Union Square cookbook. Mix the breadcrumbs and parsley— and if you’re like me, freshly grated Parmesan— in a bowl and add olive oil to moisten. Transfer the pasta with sauce to an ovenproof bowl and sprinkle the crumb mixture over the top. Put under the oven broiler for a few minutes, until the crumbs have browned and crisped.This takes about a minute, and gives you a pasta with a wonderful, light crust.

Where do u get those restaurant quality anchovies large n not as salty?

This is delicious but PLEASE don't make it with those cheap, low-quality anchovies in the tin. Get high quality ones in a large tin or glass jar. You will have a much more delicious dish.

For similar recipes, read the accompanying article. In it, the author suggests wild fennel as an ingredient, which is found in Sicily and Southern California. He explains the difference in taste from farmed fennel, which I found instructive and fascinating. I live in LA and have been eyeing the wild fennel growing in the field next door. The fronds smell like licorice or anise. I plan to take a shovel and dig them out while the earth is soft with winter rain. Now I know what to do with them.

This is a classic Christmas Eve dish in my Calabrese family’s feast of the 7 fishes tradition. Not strictly Sicilian’

Substitute italian tuna for the anchovies!

I normally make David Tanis' Spaghetti with Bread Crumbs and Pepper from his One Good Dish cookbook, so this was a refreshing change-up. Incredibly easy to make on a cool, wet, autumn Friday evening.

I think next time I would toast the breadcrumbs rather than fry them in olive oil. The result was a little too oily for my taste.

There are times when I crave anchovies and this recipe certainly scratches that itch. I do not puree the anchovies completely thoroughly as I like to find small pieces of them in the sauce. I also used a small amount of the pasta cooking water. Perfect.