Pasta con le sarde

Wash and fillet the sardines and set aside.
        
Chop the fennel roughly and cook briefly in plenty of salted water, remove and set aside but keep the water.
        
Sauté the onions in a little olive oil until they are translucent.

Then pour about 200 ml of fennel water over the onions and bring to a brisk simmer until it has almost reduced.

Now add the saffron and stir well.
       
Pour in just enough olive oil to make a thick sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste – remove from the heat and set aside.
        
In a separate pan, sauté the anchovy fillets until they disintegrate and then add the sardines, cooking them over low heat until they are just cooked.
        
Scrape this out of the pan, and into the pan with the saffron sauce, mixing everything well but try not to break the sardines too much.
        
Add the pasta to the boiling fennel water (add a little more salted water if it’s not enough) and cook until al dente.
      
Put the pasta in a large serving bowl, add the raisins and the pine nuts and mix well.

Then add the saffron and anchovy sauce.

Toss and allow to stand for a few minutes before serving.