Bucatini with Onion, Anchovy and Parsley

This might appear unusual, admittedly I hesitated before giving it a shot.  Would onion and anchovy work?  Heck, why not find out?  I did and there's a reason for sharing.

The answer is, yes.  Mine is topped here with extra anchovy crumb (pangriata) a southern Italian creation of fried seasoned breadcrumbs with garlic, parsley and anchovy (this stores well in the fridge, bonus points for that).

Ingredients for the pasta sauce (2):

2 small to medium onions, thinly sliced

8 anchovies (quite a lot)

1 whole peeled clove of garlic

6 TBSP of parsley, finely sliced

Pasta (2):

170- 200g bucatini (this cooks in 5 or 6 minutes)

1 generous Italian pinch of salt (for the pasta)

Method:

Soften onions over a low heat for around 10 minutes.  It's a good tip to add salt to help them soften, pile them up and a splash of water if they start to dry out.

Add anchovy to onion and a few twists of black pepper.

Cook the bucatini for 5.5 minutes.

Stir the bucatini, with  pasta water, into the onion and anchovy mixture for 1 minute. 

Add parsley and stir just before serving.

Top with Pangriata (another recipe I need to share.... )

A similar fishy pasta treat from Loïc:

Shrimp and Artichoke Spaghetti