Cheap&Chic - Filled Paccheri

Today’s dish introduces the “cheap&chic" section into our recipe blog; little expenses and great impression!

Today’s recipe: paccheri filled with sardines and spiced provolone cheese is a brilliant example of cheapness and chicness: paccheri are a variety of short pasta which is typical of Naples (their shape is that of a large tube). The sardines aren’t expensive, and will surprise your guests with their taste and flavour. Filled paccheri is a very scenic and chic recipe, which will leave your guests astonished without affecting your wallet.

Sardines are a cheap but tasty fish that blend fabulously with the sweetness of the spicy provolone cheese, in a fun and original combination. It's not a blowout dish (6-7 paccheri per serving are more than sufficient) but it is a first class dish, suitable to surprise aunts, mothers-in-law, or bosses. Because of its strong taste, I suggest you follow it with a fresh salad placed in parmesan cheese baskets or a salad of sliced ​​fennels with olives and oranges.

Ingredients (3 servings):

300g of fresh sardines
250g spicy provolone cheese
parsley
1 garlic clove
30g pecorino cheese
20g breadcrumbs
olive oil, salt and pepper

Grate the provolone cheese into a bowl (use the larger holes of the grater). Wash and dry the parsley leaves (leave one third for later) and cut the garlic into small pieces. Then chop both on a cutting board. Meanwhile, clean the sardines: cut off the head, remove the entrails and split in two halves, remove the central bone and separate the threads, taking care to remove the bones. Place in a clean bowl as you clean them. Wash and dry them. Chop the sardine fillets in the bowl with the provolone cheese, add the chopped garlic and parsley, salt and pepper, and mix until well blended (if you like, you can add one tablespoon of very fine grated lemon zest).

Put the paccheri to cook in boiling salted water. Meanwhile, grate the pecorino cheese, mix it with bread crumbs and the remaining parsley. Drain the paccheri al dente (after 6 minutes). Place them on a clean kitchen rag and start filling them one by one with the sardines mixture.
Once filled, place them on a baking tray lined with bakery paper (wet and squeeze the paper; it will adhere better to the pan and will not burn during cooking). 

 

Cover with the mixture with cheese, breadcrumbs and parsley and finish off with a little olive oil.
Place in preheated to 200 ° C oven for at least 10 minutes, then check the cooking according to your tastes. Make sure that the filling doesn’t dry out too much. Serve on a plate, with a garniture of chopped tomatoes or lemon slices.

Dinner is ready!