The BIGOLI IN SALSA are a traditional dish of Venetian cuisine, particularly Venetian, made with simple ingredients such as onions and anchovies, yet rich in flavor.
The bigoli in sauce are especially connected to religious traditions and are often prepared during periods of abstinence, such as Christmas Eve or Good Friday. They are a perfect example of how Venetian cuisine knows how to enhance simple ingredients with skillfully balanced techniques and flavors.
The “sauce” that accompanies them is a combination of humble but tasty ingredients and has a velvety consistency—hence the name—rather than the grainy texture of a ragù.
The onions gently stewed become soft and sweet, while the salted anchovies are the heart of the seasoning. Desalted and melted together with the onions, they provide savoriness and depth of flavor.
If you can’t find bigoli you can substitute them with spaghetti: the result will still be finger-licking good.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very affordable
- Preparation time: 5 Minutes
- Portions: 4 People
- Cooking methods: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 23 oz bigoli (fresh)
- 1 white onion (large)
- 6 fillets salted anchovy fillets
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
- to taste salt
- to taste black pepper
- parsley
TOOLS YOU’LL NEED FOR BIGOLI IN SAUCE
- 1 Pan
- 1 Pot
- 1 Cutting board
- 1 Knife
PREPARATION OF BIGOLI IN SAUCE
Finely chop the white onion. If you don’t have a large one, use two.
Pour plenty of oil into a pan and gently sweat the onion over low heat, covered, for 15 minutes. It should soften almost into a cream and not brown. Add a little water if it starts to dry out.
Clean the anchovies by removing the backbone and guts, then rinse them to remove the salt and cut them into pieces.
Add the chopped anchovies to the onion and continue cooking, stirring with a wooden spoon, until they have melted and blended with the onions. Taste at the end of cooking and, if necessary, adjust the salt.
Cook the bigoli in plenty of boiling salted water. Drain them al dente and place them in the pan. Add a few ladles of the pasta cooking water and finish cooking. With the heat off, add freshly ground black pepper and toss to combine.
Plate your bigoli in sauce and serve immediately with a generous sprinkling of parsley.
TIP
If you don’t have salted anchovies you can use those preserved in oil.
DID YOU KNOW?
The main characteristic of bigoli is their roughness, which allows them to hold sauces and seasonings; this peculiarity comes from the type of preparation and production chain that uses traditional presses originally operated by hand.
