Hello & Sardine Pasta

So an old friend once said to me, probably quoting someone like Oscar Wilde: "Never apologize, never explain."  Advice I've never followed - always overdoing both. Ah well.

But on this occasion I'm just going to say hello, hope you're all happy and healthy, and that some of you are still tuning in, through inertia if nothing else. And - in the unlikely event that anyone's checking - that even though I haven't been blogging, I've been cooking a lot. Usually much more than the recipe-a-week resolution thing demands. Thus there's an enormous backlog of things to tell you about, which is highly unlikely to happen. So I'll just start with tonight's dinner.

In his video on the NYTimes, Mark Bittman goes on about the cuteness of his tin of sardines. But this one's pretty good too, right?

I saw this in our (crappy) supermarket the day after I'd read Mr. B.'s recipe and couldn't resist. Unsure, though, about the whole sardine thing. We used to like them as children, have them on toast with lemon squeezed on top. But that was a long time ago...

The Recipe: Pasta with Sardines, Breadcrumbs, and Capers
From Mr. B. on the NYTimes.

Thoughts/Tips/Mistakes
It was super easy and tasty. I divided the recipe in half for the two of us (used much less pasta, he always carbo-loads), and in future would add more capers. Also squeezed some lemon juice on top, thought it needed it.

Like he says, serve immediately, and it's definitely good to hold back some of the breadcrumbs to garnish so you make sure you get some crunch.

Also added a pinch of red pepper flakes to the sardine mixture while cooking - would maybe make it a bigger pinch next time. 

And talking of next time, might actually try racheleats's version, which adds anchovies to the breadcrumbs and uses arugula instead of parsley - and, bizarrely enough, came out right around the same time as Mr. B.'s. What a strange zeitgeist - pasta with sardines...

Anyhoo, being already nervous about the sardines, and not an anchovy fan, I thought it might be a fish too far.  But it really wasn't super fishy, so will brave Rachel's recipe soon, maybe keeping the capers cos we love them.

Sardines are good - though I did pick out the tiny backbones. Too freaky.