---
title: 'Tinned Fish Garlic Noodles | Depression-Era Spaghetti | Food Wishes'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=3EAwrOSBe3A'
video_id: '3EAwrOSBe3A'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 538
---

# Tinned Fish Garlic Noodles | Depression-Era Spaghetti | Food Wishes

> Source: [Tinned Fish Garlic Noodles | Depression-Era Spaghetti | Food Wishes](https://youtube.com/watch?v=3EAwrOSBe3A)

## Summary

Chef John from FoodWishes.com demonstrates how to make tinned fish garlic noodles, a Depression-era inspired dish combining sardine spaghetti and bread crumb pasta. The recipe uses olive oil-packed sardines, torn pan-fried bread for a meaty texture, and is highly adaptable and affordable.

### Key Points

- **Sardine can opening tip** [00:27] — Don't fully remove the lid to avoid cuts and spills.
- **Choose olive oil-packed sardines** [00:44] — Buy sardines packed in olive oil and use the oil for sauce.
- **Sardine anatomy is edible** [01:10] — Bones and fins are soft and edible due to processing.
- **Sardine sauce ingredients** [01:36] — Mash sardines with garlic, chili flakes, parsley, and extra olive oil.
- **Fried bread component** [02:03] — Use torn bread pieces (not breadcrumbs) for a meaty texture.
- **Cooking the bread** [02:53] — Fry bread until crispy outside, chewy inside.
- **Pasta choice** [04:06] — Any noodles work; spaghetti is recommended.
- **Cooking the sauce** [04:38] — Cook sardine mixture briefly to mellow garlic.
- **Pasta water technique** [05:26] — Transfer pasta directly from water to pan with pasta water.
- **Final assembly** [06:12] — Finish with parsley, Parmesan, and fried bread.
- **Tasting notes** [07:07] — Taste is reminiscent of garlic lamb pasta; texture from bread is meaty.
- **Adaptability** [08:10] — Add vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, beans in summer.

## Transcript

Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com, a with 10 fish garlic noodles. That's where we're combining two depression error classics, and whether you make this
because it's very cheap to do, and using 10 fish is very popular right now, where you maybe just want to experience something your grandparents might have eaten during that time. There's a very good chance this makes your regular recipe rotation.
And to get started, we'll begin with the star of the show, one can of sardines, and the first tip here is do not try to pull the top all the way off, or a 75% of cuts and 90% of spills happen when people try to remove that fully, so just leave it.
And then our second big tip is make sure you buy the sardines that are packed in olive oil since we'll use that to help make our sauce, and it comes free with the sardines. So why some people drain that I have no idea, but anyway we'll transfer our 10 fish into
a bowl, which technically are aluminum fish, but that just doesn't have the same ring to it. And then our third 10 fish tip, do not look too close, or you'll see things that cannot
be unseen, but the good news is any bones or fins or vertebrae are going to be as soft and succulent as the meat, because of how this is processed, so we get to use all of it.
With the last, we will cover that as quickly as possible with the rest of our ingredients, including a ton, a finely minced or crushed garlic, followed by some red chili flakes, if you're doing the spicy version, which we are.
And then we'll also add some freshly chopped Italian parsley, but not all of it, we'll save some to finish our noodles with, and then last but not least, we'll add some more olive oil, since there's not going to be quite enough in the can to do the job.
And that's it, we'll take a fork and give this a thorough mashing. And that's it, once our sardine mixture has been properly forked, we will transfer that into the fridge, and we will move on to our second major component, which is going to be some
torn pan fried bread, since the two depressionary dishes that inspired this would be a sardine spaghetti and a bread crumb pasta, except we are not doing crumbs.
What we actually want to do here is tear up some day old or fresh bread, both will work, until like jagged half or one inch pieces, and while some people do this same type of dish with bread crumbs, the better cooks during the depression era, always use bigger pieces
of bread like this, which once fried and incorporated into our noodles, is going to give us something much closer to the texture of some chunks of meat, and for me this is an absolute key to
the dish. And once we do have our bread torn up as shown, we will head to the stove, and we'll place a nice big pan over medium-high heat, and we'll transfer our torn bread in, along with
a fairly generous amount of olive oil, plus a little pinch of salt, and then what we'll do is cook these stirring and or tossing, until the outsides get beautifully crispy and golden brown, but the insides of the larger pieces still retain a little bit of chewiness,
and that's what's going to give us as I touched down earlier, that sort of meaty effect we want, which I believe makes the final dish way more satisfying and interesting to eat, and by the way once he's started to crisp up, we can probably back our heat down to medium,
since we don't want the smaller pieces to turn black, before the rest of the pieces are cooked properly, and then once we're happy with how these are looking, and also how they're looking, which should be something like this, we'll go ahead and drizzle in a little more
olive oil, plus a spoon of minced garlic, and we'll stir and toss that around for about 30-45 seconds, just to toast that garlic a little bit, and we don't have to add the garlic
since there's plenty in the pasta, but if I have some of these left over, and I'm going to use them on a salad, it's kind of nice if they're already garlic, but either way once these are set, we'll pull them off the stove, and transfer everything into a bowl, and
we'll reserve that until we need it, and once our two main components are prepped, we can go ahead and boil our spaghetti, and some generously salted water as usual, and by the way anything's going to work for this recipe, okay I named the dish noodles, since that has
a very broad appeal, and while I think this spaghetti works perfectly, some ramen noodles would work, or rice noodles would work, or pretty much any other kind of pasta you like, and then while our pasta is boiling, we will put that same pan back over medium-high heat, and
we will transfer in our gorgeous sardine mixture, and yes I'm kind of kidding, right if the great depression had a color, this would be it, but that's fine because it makes an absolutely gorgeous pasta as you'll see, and what we'll do just as soon as this mixture starts to
fry in the pan, is give it a stir, and we'll just let it cook for 30 seconds before we turn the heat off, and wait for our pasta to finish cooking, and we don't really have to cook this by the way, but I do like to take the raw edge off that garlic, just to mellow it out a little
bit, but anyway whether you cook that and for how long is up to you, I mean you are after all the Herbert Hoover, of what to do here, but in any event once our pasta is cooked, we will use some tongs to transfer directly from the water into the pan, since we do want
some of that pasta water coming with it, plus we're going to be adding some of that pasta water in to finish the sauce, and if you drain your pasta in the sink that's not happening, but anyway once that's transferred in, we'll give it a good toss with our tongs, and we'll
put our heat back on low to keep things warm, and then once we've stirred everything together, we'll splash in a few spoons of pasta water, and we'll give it another toss, and observe, since that might be enough water, but it might not be, and you may very well decide
that some more in, which I did, okay, it all depends on how creamy quote unquote you want your sauce, so it keeps splashing and stirring until you're happy, and when you are, and right here I was, we'll go ahead and turn off the heat, and we'll finish this up with
some more freshly chopped Italian parsley, as well as some Parmesan cheese if we have it, right that's optional, but it definitely makes the dish a lot richer and more delicious I think, and then we'll also toss in about half our fried bread, and I generally go with
the larger pieces, so we can save those smaller pieces to crumble over the top, and then I like to finish up with one more drizzle of olive oil, before giving this a final toss, and of course you probably want a taste for seasoning, although with the cheese and the
sardine there's probably going to be enough salt, and that's it once everything's been stirred together, we can go ahead and serve up, and then as far as garnishing goes, I'm going to finish with a little more grated cheese, plus we'll take our reserve crispy fried
garlic bread, and we will crumble that generously over the top, and we'll finish up with one more pinch of parsley, and our 10 fish garlic noodles are ready to enjoy, so I cleaned off the bowl
and took way way too many contractually obligated pictures, before I grabbed a fork and spoon and dug in, and that my friends was so incredible in both taste and texture, I'm not sure which one I should discuss first, but let's go with the taste, which is very reminiscent of
like a garlic lamb pasta, alright people would definitely know this is a seafood pasta, but unless you're super familiar with sardines, you might not even realize are in here, and of course a ton of garlic and parsley and olive oil and parmesan don't hurt, so I really do
think the taste is exceptional, especially if you enjoy other garlic noodle recipes, alright if so you're really going to love this, and then as far as the texture goes, that crispy fried torn bread, which is definitely still crispy on the outside, as that soften slightly once
it's mixed into the noodles, it really does feature quite a meaty mouth feel, so while just a plain sardines spaghetti would have been nice, as would have been just a plain garlic olive oil pasta with the bread crumbs on it, when we combine those two things together, I think
we create something better than both those things on their own, and by the way during the Great Depression, anyone in the headroom to plan a garden did, so in the summer if you have some tomatoes or peppers or zucchini or beans go ahead and throw them in, alright this is
very adaptable, so have fun, but whether you add other things or not, I really think you're going to love these 10 fish garlic noodles, which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon, so please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe and much
for info as usual, and as always, enjoy!