Pasta con le sarde is bucatini or perciatelli tossed with fresh sardines, wild fennel fronds, pine nuts, sultanas, anchovies and saffron, breadcrumbed at the top, Palermo's defining pasta.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Pasta con le sarde traces to the 9th-century Arab conquest of Sicily; the combination of sardines, raisins, pine nuts and saffron is the most Arab-influenced of all Palermitan dishes. Tradition has it that an Arab general's cook created it on the Sicilian shore using the campaign rations to hand. The dish is on every Palermitan trattoria carte.
Common allergens: Gluten, Fish, Nuts
Tip from the editors. Wild fennel fronds are essential; if you cannot find them, use the fronds of a bulb fennel plus a teaspoon of fennel seeds, never the bulb itself.
This is the TableJourney editorial recipe, modelled on the canonical bistro / counter version. The first place to try the dish in its city of origin is below.
Trattoria Ai Cascinari on Via D'Ossuna in Palermo is a 1949 family room behind the Capo market, where Palermitan workers eat cucina povera classics every Sunday for under 20 euros.
Why locals love it: A 1949 Slow Food trattoria behind the Capo market that almost no tourist finds; the Cascino courtyard location keeps it strictly Palermitan working-class lunch.
Tip: Book a day ahead for Sunday lunch; gluten-free pasta available with notice. Cash works fastest.
Buatta on Via Vittorio Emanuele in Palermo is the city's flagship cucina povera room, a Michelin Bib Gourmand for seasonal Sicilian plates inside an 1870 grocer's shopfront.
Signature: Sarde a beccafico, Caponata, Pasta con le sarde
Order: Sarde a beccafico and the caponata, the carte flagships.
Tip: Book ahead. The mixed antipasti for two is the efficient lunch order.
Osteria Ballaro on Via Calascibetta at the edge of the Ballaro market in Palermo runs a candlelit two-room space, Sicilian seafood carte and live music most nights.
Signature: Pasta con le sarde, Tagliata di tonno, Cannoli
Order: Tagliata di tonno and the pasta con le sarde, with a Grillo by the glass.
Tip: Book ahead at weekends. Live music starts 21:30; ask for the back room if you want quieter.
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