Bigoli in Alici Sauce: an Original Recipe with a History
A wonderful Venetian holiday tradition, by Federica
Golden home-made bigoli, ready to cook
Imagine you are entering a Venetian kitchen, you hear the onion frying, you smell the scent of fish; they are the sounds and scents of the most authentic tradition, representing a culture that often does not come from the wealthy classes, but from the customs of the lower classes.
This is the "Bigoli in Alici (anchovies) sauce", a typical recipe from the Veneto region. In that it was considered a dish of the poor, the early Church established it as a type of dish to be eaten as symbols of fasting and purification. Designated as "lean" or "poor", it was eaten on the Eves of Christmas, Good Friday and Ash Wednesday.
The richness of the dish is in the strong and intense flavor which is released like an explosion - a “firework”. Perhaps for this very reason, bigoli in anchovy sauce is consumed during another typical moment of the Venetian tradition, the Feast of the Redeemer (Festa del Redentore), the commemoration of the city’s redemption from the Plague in the 16th century. It is an occasion when Venetians get together on boats in the lagoon and celebrate with this typical dinner, waiting for a great fireworks display.
Bigoli can be described as a long-drawn pasta with a wrinkled and porous surface (perfect to better collect the sauce), prepared with a mixture of durum wheat flour, barley and rye.
To prepare bigoli like a real Venetian you will need a special pasta extruder, a “torcio bigolaro”, introduced by Marco Polo or, perhaps, by the Paduan pasta maker Bartolomio Veronese. With the use of this device, poor families could prepare many types of pasta simply by attaching it to a table and using the screw connected to the piston to force the dough through a bronze die.
INGREDIENTS
350 g bigoli
8 large, salted anchovies or alternatively, sardines
1 large white onion
20g of extra virgin olive oil
salt
PREPARATION
Fry the onion slowly without letting it brown, using a few spoonsful of water, cooking further to soften without browning.
Debone the anchovies and desalt under running water, then add to onion.
Cook until a fairly homogeneous cream is obtained.
Season the bigoli with this sauce. According to the "rule", no parmesan cheese (I secretly put in a handful and whisk the pasta until there's a little left dripping.)
Bigoli with anchovies ready to enjoy
Serve the bigoli on the table! Buon Natale!