Some dishes are born of abundance, others of scarcity - and it is precisely the latter that are usually the best. Pasta con le sarde, the Sicilian pasta with sardines, is a story of how a few simple ingredients become one of the greatest masterpieces of southern Italian cooking.

Legend says Arab soldiers landed on Sicily in the ninth century, and their cook improvised with what he had at hand - fresh sardines, wild fennel, raisins, pine nuts and saffron. From that improvisation, so the tradition goes, was born a dish that Palermo keeps like a sacred thing.

For four servings you need: 400 grams of bucatini, 500 grams of cleaned fillets of fresh sardines, one large bunch of fennel (wild if possible), an onion, 40 grams each of raisins and pine nuts, a little saffron, 80 grams of breadcrumbs, six tablespoons of olive oil, salt and freshly ground pepper.

First boil the fennel in salted water for fifteen to twenty minutes until it softens completely, and keep the water - you'll cook the pasta in it later. Chop the fennel. In a pan with two tablespoons of oil, toast the breadcrumbs until golden, then set them aside.

Then, in the same pan with a little oil, slowly fry the onion until it turns translucent, add the raisins and pine nuts for another two minutes, then add the chopped fennel. Dissolve the saffron in the fennel water and pour it in - stir until the colour turns golden.

Add about two-thirds of the sardine fillets and cook for two or three minutes, gently, so they don't fall apart. Boil the pasta in the fennel water until it's al dente, then transfer it straight into the pan with a cup of the cooking water. Stir carefully until the sauce is absorbed.

Finally, fry the remaining sardine fillets for just one minute and arrange them over the pasta. On top - generously toasted breadcrumbs, a sprig of fresh fennel and a drop of olive oil. A dish that looks like it's from a restaurant, but is in fact born of scarcity. Sometimes that is exactly the secret.