There is no dish more evocative of its home than this

The dish

Pasta con le sarde, Italy

Plate up

Surely there has never been a dish so perfectly evocative of a place as pasta con le sarde. If you’ve been to Sicily, you’ve tasted this dish. If you’ve breathed the air, walked the hills or swum in the Mediterranean, you’ve tasted this dish. It is Sicily.

Just look at the ingredients: sardines and anchovies, caught off the coast of Palermo, Catania or Trapani; wild fennel, foraged from those surrounding hills; raisins, saffron and pine nuts, borne of Sicily’s history of Byzantine and Islamic rule; and pasta, usually bucatini, a classic of Italian fare. Pair this with a glass of local grillo wine, and you couldn’t be anywhere else.

First serve

The more you read of culinary history, the more you’re forced to accept the idea that great leaders – generals, emperors, kings – were also great cooks, who happened to invent some of the world’s most famous dishes. Uh-huh, sure. And here once more we have a marauding conqueror who could also duck into the kitchen and whip up a mean feed. Eufemio da Messina was a Byzantine general who, in the 9th century AD, was engaged in multiple battles and coup d’etat attempts to wrest control of Sicily. During a campaign around Syracuse, Eufemio was forced to scavenge for food to feed his troops, and got his hands on wild fennel and local sardines. Thus, pasta con le sarde was born. The general would go on to be betrayed and murdered; his pasta dish proved eternal.

Order there

Palermo is considered the home of pasta con le sarde, despite the dish’s history in Syracuse. When you’re there, sample an excellent version at Trattoria la Cambusa (lacambusa.it).

Order here

In Sydney, there’s lovely pasta con le sarde at Olio in Chippendale (olio.kensingtonstreet.com.au). In Melbourne the dish is trickier to find, though there’s great Sicilian fare at Bar Idda (baridda.com.au). In Brisbane, try Rosmarino (rosmarino.com.au).

One more thing

It’s said there are as many recipes for pasta con le sarde as there are households in Sicily. Some use the fennel bulb, some just the stems. Some add tomato paste, others don’t. Some top with fried breadcrumbs, others think it’s heresy. The joy is in trying them all.