Tomato & Sardine Pasta Recipe

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.

Meanwhile, peel and slice your garlic cloves as finely as possible, set aside. Add a generous glug of olive oil to a frying pan over a low heat. Add the garlic along with the chilli flakes and sizzle for a minute, careful not to let the garlic burn.

Tip the tin of sardines into the pan and mush them up with a wooden spoon. Let it cook for a couple minutes more. Add some olive brine to the sardine tin, rinse off all the cling-ons and pop that into the sauce as well. Roughly chop the olives and add to the pan.

Whack the spaghetti into the now boiling pan of water and set a timer for 8 mins.

Grab your tin of plum tomatoes and add them to the sauce by squeezing them in your hands then cook for 5 mins further, if it’s a little too thick, you can add a little olive brine to loosen.

Roughly chop up your parsley and add most of it to the sauce, reserving a little for garnishing. Taste and season with salt and black pepper.

Once the timer goes off, use tongs to transfer the al dente spaghetti down into the pan of sauce, add a big splash of pasta water and continue to cook the pasta in the sauce until it’s cooked through and the sauce is coating the pasta, around 2 mins. If it looks a little dry, simply add more of the pasta water.

Plate up time. Twirl it onto serving plates and finish with the reserved parsley, a drizzle of olive oil and a crack of black pepper. BOOM.