Step by Step recipes

Bigoli with duck sauce

A first course typical of the Veneto region traditionally served accompanied with a duck-meat sauce. A fine and delicate recipe for your table

  • Time

    35 minutes

  • Difficulty

    Easy

  • Course

    First Courses

  • Italian Region

    Veneto

Ingredients

Servings 4

Preparation

20 minutes preparation + 15 minutes cooking

Step 1

In a pan containing some butter, brown the onions, add the giblets, the liver and the duck meat. Mix thoroughly.

Bigoli with duck sauce - step 1

Step 2

Pour the red wine over the mixture, allow to evaporate, and then salt to taste.

Bigoli with duck sauce - step 2

Step 3

Add the Swiss chard, the bay leaves and finally the tomato. In the meantime, cook the pasta in abundant boiling and salted water.

Bigoli with duck sauce - step 3

Step 4

When the pasta is cooked, when it is still “al dente”, drain it, put it in the pan with the sauce and toss it. Remove from the heat and sprinkle with grated Parmesan, finely chopped parsley and arrange on the serving dish.

Bigoli with duck sauce - step 4

Chef's Tips

Add parsley toward the last minutes of cooking: it will impart a bright and fresh flavor.

Food history

This is a typical first course from the Veneto region. The “bigolo” is a hard wheat pasta, which had already made its appearance in the eighteenth century.

It was produced using the special “bigolaro”, a press featuring a brass drawplate which permitted the pasta to be drawn and assume its particularly rough-textured “bigolo” shape.

In the Veneto region, the name “bigoli” is also given to large spaghetti or “bucatini” because of their slender elongated shape, also a kind of “bigolo”.