Angela's Italian Recipe for Spaghetti with Tuna & Fennel

Spaghetti with Tuna and Fennel
(Spaghetti con Tonno e Finocchio)


Ingredients:
1 lb spaghetti 8 ounces fresh tuna or packed in olive oil 1 onion 2 garlic cloves 4 anchovy filets 1 large ripe tomato 2 tablespoons capers 1 pinch saffron 1/4 cup parsley 1/2 cup fennel leaves 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

Mollica: toasted breadcrumbs (see mollica recipe below)
Dice the onion, slice the garlic cloves in half, finely chop the parsley and the fennel leaves.

Slice the tomato in half, gently squeeze out the seeds and coarsely chop. If using fresh tuna, sear it a pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Chop the fresh tuna or crumble the tuna packed in oil. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil, then add the spaghetti. Meanwhile, in a large sauté pan, add the olive oil, chopped onions and garlic and cook for over moderate heat until the onions are transparent.

Mash in the anchovy filets, then add the chopped tomato, capers, parsley, fennel and saffron and cook for several minutes.

Add the tuna to the sauce. When the spaghetti has cooked 'al dente', strain and toss the pasta in the sauce and simmer until the ingredients are well incorporated. Sprinkle with toasted breadcrumbs and serve.
Mollica: Toasted Breadcrumbs

To prepare the toasted breadcrumbs it is preferable to make them from stale, dry bread, by either grating the bread by hand into a large mixing bowl. Better still, is with a food processor and using the pulse switch. Be sure not to allow the crumbs to become too fine.

You can use packaged plain breadcrumbs from the market; however, the quality will not be as good as homemade and are often too fine for adding to a pasta sauce.

Lightly coat a pan with olive oil and allow the pan to warm over moderate heat and add the breadcrumbs.

Constantly stir the breadcrumbs to prevent them to sticking or burning.

When they have evenly toasted to a golden brown, remove them from the pan and set aside. You can make as much as you like, as they will keep for some time in a covered plastic container.