How To Give Pasta A Sicilian-Inspired Upgrade With Raisins

If you've never tried it before, mixing raisins and pasta may sound like an unlikely combo. You may only associate these dried grapes with sweet dishes like cinnamon-raisin bread and oatmeal-raisin cookies. But take it from Brussels sprouts, salads, and Sicilian cuisine — these little nuggets are just as tasty in savory meals.

Sicilians use raisins in quite a few of their iconic pastas, which are not hard to replicate at home. The key here is to use a combination of sweet and salty ingredients, a popular juxtaposition in Sicilian dishes. But when it comes to the raisins, feel free to give them a good soak in red or white wine (with an optional sprinkle of saffron) to get them nice and plump. You can do this by simply plopping them in a bowl with your liquid for an hour (or longer) or warming them up on the stove together. If you'd rather omit the wine, you can opt for warm water instead, but you'll be missing out on all those tasty flavor benefits. And if you'd rather skip this step, you can just toss your dry raisins right into the pan.

If you're making the classic Sicilian dish pasta con le sarde, you'll want to prep a few other ingredients along with your raisins. While this meal is traditionally made with wild Italian fennel, you can sub in the cultivated fennel that you'd find in a U.S. grocery store — but you'll want to dice and saute the bulb with onion. Then, to balance out the sweetness of your raisins (and the licorice-like flavor of the fennel), toast breadcrumbs in a pan with olive oil, and throw some pine nuts and lemon juice into your pan before adding your pasta.

Fresh sardines are common in Sicilian cuisine. But feel free to go with the canned version as a shortcut here, as well as tinned anchovies, as long as they're both packed in olive oil. And while these ingredients are all classic choices for raisin-filled pasta, there are quite a few ways you can switch up your dish. Instead of breadcrumbs, use chopped almonds or even fresh, fried sardines as the topping. Throw in fried capers, garlic, boiled cauliflower, lemon zest, pistachios, or a sprinkling of parmesan. To jazz up the appearance (and acidity) of your pasta, incorporate just a spoonful of tomato paste into your sauteed ingredients.