Pasta with Sardines, Breadcrumbs and Capers

This is such a simple pasta dish. I printed it off years ago and it lay in a folder as many of the recipes I find do and I finally got around to making it. It's also cheap as the fish is canned and all the ingredients can be found in most peoples store cupboards. One of those meals to go to when I've forgotten to take anything out of the freezer. It also counted as one of my oily fish dishes with the sardines.

I had a bargain in Waitrose the week before last, I finished my zumba class at about 8.30pm and popped in to pick up a few bits, just as they were reducing the bakery items, I got a Gail's Artisan Bakery potato and rosemary sourdough loaf for 19p, it should have been £3.20, and a raspberry meringue that should have been £1.90 for 9p, I was well chuffed. So I had very posh breadcrumbs in this pasta dish, but any kind of stale day old bread would be just as good. My loaf of bread this week is WeightWatchers wholemeal as that was only 20p in Asda! I was finding bargains all over the place last week!

Pasta with Sardines, Breadcrumbs and Capers (from The New York Times)
(Serves 4)

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
60g bread crumbs
1 onion, chopped
salt and pepper
450g dried long pasta
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 tbsp drained capers
2 cans sardines packed in extra virgin olive oil
4 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, plus more for garnish.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until just tender; drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, Put half the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. When it’s hot, add the bread crumbs and cook, stirring frequently, until golden and fragrant, less than 5 minutes, and then remove. Add the remaining oil and the onion to the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.

Turn the heat under the onions to medium-high and add the lemon zest, capers and sardines; cook, stirring occasionally, until just heated through, about 2 minutes.

Add the pasta to the sardine mixture and toss well to combine. Add the parsley, most of the bread crumbs and some reserved water, if necessary, to moisten. Taste and adjust seasoning, garnishing with more parsley and bread crumbs.