It was a few years back, and I discovered a restaurant in a back street of the coastal town of Sciacca in Sicily. A young lady was cooking, and the restaurant was more elaborate than you would expect for the area. I ordered zuppa della nonna, grandmother’s soup, and what arrived was a bowl of sardine and cut pasta, a kind of tomato-based thick minestrone. It was breathtaking. The sense of place, along with the heritage of this recipe, has stayed with me. I had to meet the young chef who had made it. It turned out that Lila Bentivegna knew of me, and she has now spent some days each closed season working with us at Trinity. Lila and I have swapped many recipes. I mentor her and love the way she has evolved as a cook. This one is a gift from her to me and from me to you.
And it’s still on the menu today. Grazie Chef Lila Bentivegna for sharing this gift with me.
Full long-form recipe on my channel
This soup is from a place called Hosteria delvic Vicolo, which is a beautiful little restaurant in a seaside town called Shaka in Sicily. So, we start with these sardines, and we want to create a nice crispiness on the skin. In goes the onion. We’re going to start seasoning now to season the whole dish. In goes the fennel. Nice carrot in there. That’s going to bring sweetness and texture as well. Into there goes tomatoes. They’re just tomatoes with the seeds removed. Uh skins left on. They’re just pieces of tomato. Into that now goes a few raisins. And this is I guess to do with like the North African end of it, but I just think they bring so much to it. Needs a little sprinkle of gold saffron. Not too much. Now into that goes the liquid from a tin of chickpeas, the aquaf faba. In goes the water. And then into this goes pata. Whatever pata you can get. This is just the one we use in the restaurant for all sorts. Give that a good mix. I’m now going to go back and pop in all my sardines. The spaghetti is just adding lovely texture to it. They’re also going to thicken the whole soup up as well. Okay, so that soup has had about 35 minutes. Thickens up hugely. It all can comes together. This is no soup, my friends. This is a meal in itself. I think I might take some of that. I’m going to have some for my dinner. Add that place.
41 Comments
Is it fresh or canned satdines
comment for the algorithm
DiMizio family checking in, APPROVED
What pan is chef using? It seems very versatile
Name on his induction 😂😂
Adam, love your content, and I need to come and eat at Trinity
I’m drooling 😊
Is it worth getting a crispy skin on the sardine if you're then going to poach it for 35 minutes?
Chef, ever make a similar thing with mackerel and chili? One of my favorites.
Looks like a spag bowl to me 😂
Seems lovely
Been called ghetto for giving my soups the spaghetti treatment. I’ll show them this haha
Thank you Chef.
Looks disgusting, like what some 19 year old college kid would do at 4 am back from the club.
I really like this chap but this dish does nothing for me
You say soup but I see slop
Thick enough to stand on. I’m in
This looks fantastic.
This is one of the craziest things I ever seen
I know it’s authentic, but you lost me with the raisins! Maybe I’ll sub black olives. Cheers!
The only recipe Italians will allow you to break pasta for.
Looks disgusting lol
😮 didn't bloom the saffron.
Crisped the fish then let it mush in the soup
Called is a soup but served it on a flat plate.
Car crash
Looks disgusting.
That looks so nasty,,,pure poop
Definitely going to try.
Ps. Let the nonnas rest
Soup???
Another simple recipe 😂
I'm from Palermo, pasta con le sarde Is not like that!!!!
You just killed an iconic Sicilian Dish!!
I'm from a village not too far from Sciacca , and I've had this dish , it's very good 😊
Chef – you are one of the greatest of all time. This is however the only thing I have seen you make that looks horrifying. Still, love all you do!
WTF did you do to the Spaghetti?
What the fuck
stopped watching at raisins
No vabbè la ricetta sciacchitana hahaha
Soup on a plate
Cooked the pasta for 35 minutes? You could've added the pasta later.
It's like a soupizided bucatini alle sarde soup
Does it taste like gloop
Spaghetti-O's
Remember eating spaghetti and after drinking too much alcohol I vomited and it look 1:1 like the dish in the video