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.
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.
3 editor picks for Pasta con le sarde in Palermo, ranked by editorial score. All Palermo signature dishes · Pasta con le sarde across every city.
Buatta Cucina Popolana ★ 4.5
loggia · Via Vittorio Emanuele 176, 90133 Palermo
Buatta Cucina Popolana 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.
Trattoria Ai Cascinari ★ 4.4
capo · Via D'Ossuna 43/45, 90138 Palermo
Trattoria Ai Cascinari on Via D'Ossuna in Palermo is a 1949-founded family room behind the Capo market, Slow Food praised for the cucina povera carte and Sunday lunch.
Osteria Ballaro ★ 4.3
albergheria · Via Calascibetta 25, 90133 Palermo
Osteria Ballaro on Via Calascibetta in Palermo runs a candlelit two-room dining space at the edge of the Ballaro market, seafood-leaning Sicilian carte with live music most evenings.