Pasta with sardines

Preparation:

Preparation: Remove the head, innards and bones from the sardines (but perhaps your fishmonger does it for you), opening them like a book. Peel off skin and rinse quickly. Peel the almonds (in any case, I recommend always buying almonds to be peeled, rather than those already peeled, because these are cleaned with machines that remove the perfume - just throw them for a few moments in boiling water, and the skin comes off immediately), toast them in a non-stick saucepan, stirring constantly, then chop them. Soak the raisins. Remove the fennel leaves from the stems and boil them for 15/20 minutes in salted water. Drain them with a slotted spoon, keeping the cooking water. Throw away the toughest part of the stems and keep the rest, chopping finely. Chop the onion and fry it in oil. When it begins to colour, add the fennel stalks and continue cooking for a couple of minutes. Then add the anchovy fillets, leaving them to fall apart, the squeezed raisins and the pine nuts. Add the sardines again, cooking for 6/7 minutes over high heat, so that they too fall apart. Chop the boiled fennel and add it to the sauce. Season with salt and add a pinch of saffron dissolved in a ladle of the water where the fennel was boiled. Leave on the fire for another 2 minutes. The texture should be quite soft. Boil the bucatini in preserved water, and drain them al dente. Add them to the sauce, and finish cooking. In the dishes, sprinkle with the chopped almonds.