Bigoi busieri co l'arna che beca
Bigoli is a classic of my places. Think of spaghetti but with soft flour instead hard, with eggs (it seems that originally they weren't without eggs but i've always found them with) and thicker. Extruded with a torchio so they have a rough surface that is the best thing to collect sauce . I haven't a torchio so...
But i don't know the name of the pasta i made, maybe because those should be fettuccine and actually aren't. Probably some years ago i've misunderstood a recipe and made that. And now that i think that i've never eaten that pasta outside done by me. It turned out to be really badass.
So the title is translated to english (from veneto) as that: liars bigoli with duck that peck. Or pecks. So it's the duck that pecks or fake bigoli? Bigoli peck your throat for sure with moruga.
Bigoli co l'arna is a traditional dish of my places.
Now let me say this: my region probabiy has the less spectaluar dish of all Italy. There's good stuff but with a lower profile. Also south Italy (i'm from north) has the best food. Truth.
But... If there's a dish that everyone has to envy it's bigoli all'anatra. It's not my everiday dish, but if you say that we are going to eat duck ragù something fabuolous it's going to happen. It's special. No matter if you are on a festival, at restaurant, a wedding or at home. Biogli with duck are ALWAYS on the top preferencies as a first dish or just the best. There could be fancier beast to make a ragù or not, beef, chicken (that's surprinsngly good), pig, deer, boar, horse, donkey (sorry Lady Sic!), roe deer, dove/pigeon (well, that one is maybe just as good but i've eaten it very rarely, also i'm not sure if it's that beast), bunny (sorry Jay!), hare and others... But in the end i i think duck is the best, la crème de la crème, never wrong with that, it's always satisfying and always worth of attention. And i think it's the best usage of duck.
Bigoli are the perfect pair for that. They're the ultimate pasta for ragù. With the best ragù the result is that: epiphany. Some prefers fettuccine, i think bigoli are just better and more badass. It seems that in 1600 they were already made.
My pasta is rough, irregular, massive and it tastes good.
The most tradtional recipe is to grab a young duck, remove giblets, make a broth with all that (duck and giblets) use giblets and some meat to make the ragù and eat the duck as a second dish. Use broth to cook ragù and pasta. Instead often is made just with minced meat so you forget the duck broth and maybe even the skin that is needed.
Since giblets aren't the most appreciated stuff but skin is a no brainer and broth too i think i made a reasonable compromise although it's my first time at cooking duck ragù (and in general i don't cook ragù).
For pasta
- 3 eggs
- 300g flour
- some water
- 1 t trinidad scorpion moruga red powder/flakes
Place the flour as a fountain, eggs on top and morga too. Amalgamate well, use some water if needed to reach right consistency and knead unti it's smooth. Let it rest sealed at least half of an hour (i let it 2 hours).
Flatten with rolling pin 2-3 mm thick and cut with a knife in stripes (let's say that width should be smaller than height). Yeah, that's boing. I don't konw if waiting for some minutes is better or not... For sure it's better to eat the same day (for me asap).
For broth
- carcass of duck or bones if you have pieces (i had pieces)
- 2 bay tree leaves
- enough water to easily cover all and more
- 3-4 carnation cloves
- an onion
- a carrot
- celery (1 gambo, i can't translate that)
- fresh parsley (2T, cut)
Just boil that for about an hour or a bit more
For ragù
- 700g duck meat with skin, minced as you prefer
- evo
- duck broth
- 1 carrot finely cut
- 1 onion finely cut
- celery finely cut (1 gambo, i can't translate that)
- 2 cloves of garlic finely cut
- some nutmeg
- salt
- black pepper
- half glass of white wine (garganego in my case)
- some butter
- grated Grana Padano
That quantity was enough for the pasta above plus 250g of some other fresh pasta (someone had to eat that but without heat), keep on mind that fresh pasta is less than dry one. In doubt use less pasta, there's alway bread to finish ragù. Or the day after, and ragù always tastes better the day after.
- pan fry onion, garlic, celery and carrot. I like to pan fry a bit first onion and garlic, regulate with plentiful salt and black pepper, then add others.
- add meat and cook till is seared and dried a bit
- cook fast with wine
- add half of a liter of duck broth and a bit of nutmeg then cook for 1 hour. Add broth if needed. Regulate salt.
Cooking pasta
Cook in duck broth removing leftovers that of course can be eaten ane believe me, they're good, add water to reach the right quantity of liquid, add salt, a bit less than if only water (i added a bit, then regulated while cooking). That pasta can take a while if you cut thick.
At the end leave some liquid of cooking in the pan (not much), place ragù, some butter, some grated Grana Padano (of course Parmigiano Reggiano is good too and more fancier but less "vicentino". Kraft singles here must be punished with guillotine) to get all more creamy.
Serve and add more ragù on top, more grated cheese if wanted.
Fuel
some strong red wine, i used cabernet and i was happy.
Was that good? And what about the heat and moruga flavour?
I think someone could be disappointed about the lacking of heat on the sauce.
Opposite to that i am really satisfied cause that time i managed to make happy both guys that didn't want heat and those who want it. And it was good, taste was delicate but strong, balanced. That time pasta has been cooked on some broth/water mix to get flavour and moruga was a fine choiche that has amalgamated really well with all, pasta and ragù and the heat was really nice, not overwhelming but strong. Same for mouga flavour. So that was not ruined and maybe even improved and with some monumental recipes it's not always easy.
Also cabernet (of course local) was great with that.