Bigoli for ever and ever

I've just realized that I've never spoke of Bigoli on this blog!!! That's incredible!
Since the first bite I had of this wonderful pasta I was in love!
Let's go back in time... It was our first tour in Veneto, winter of 2002 or 2003, and we were in a nice little restaurant in Verona, near the (hypothetical) Juliet's balcony (Juliet of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet). It was a mid week lunch, crowded, and while my husband was choosing among the many meat dishes with polenta on the side, I was heading towards the pasta list. I've decided for Bigoli con sugo di anatra (Bigoli with duck sauce).
The dish arrived in front of me and I was lying pure heaven! A steaming plate of thick, rough, home made egg spaghetti (Bigoli) with a dense tomato and duck sauce. The aroma was incredible... And the taste...
Most of the time non-Italians have difficulty to understand that each shapes and types of pasta as a flavour of its own... That duck sauce could only exist WITH that bigoli, not with normal spaghetti, even less with short pasta, may be it could have a little life with fresh egg tagliatelle, but with those bigoli it was just the nearest to perfection I've ever tasted!

I would love to make that duck sauce again, but to constraint my bimonthly need for Bigoli I have to find compromises...

Serves 4 (2 in there me at the table...)
500 g of fresh Bigoli (sorry, I buy them, but may be one day I will try to make them)
200 g of asparagus, thickly sliced
1 robiola (around 100 g)

Bring to the boil a large quantity of water. When it's begging to boil, add sea salt.
Add the asparagus and the bigoli. Cook it for 8 minutes.
In the mean while, lay the robiola in a big bowl, pour over it a ladle of the pasta water, and mix it.
Drain pasta and asparagus, add it to the bowl and mix t well before to serve it.

Cozze e broccoli

I had this idea in mind: a nice dish of pasta with mussels and broccoli. The problem was, as you can understand from the picture, that I cooked broccoli too much and all I end up with were just the stalks, while the nice green flowers were all over my sink... So, in the recipe, you will find the time you should cook the broccoli, and not the time I actually cooked them... Mess happens, even in the "best kitchens" (Ah! Ah! Ah!)...

1 kg of Spanish mussels
250 g of macheroni, mezze maniche, rigatoni or penne
1 broccoli flower
extra virgin olive oil
chilli pepper
garlic
parsley
1 glass of white wine (plus more for your lunch and while you are cooking!)

Begin by preparing the mussels. clean them under running cold water and discard all the open shells. Heat 2 tablespoon of oil in a heavy sauce pan and add garlic, chilli pepper and parsley (as much as you like for everything), then add mussels, let them stir fry a bit, add the wine and let them cook, covered, for 5-10 minutes, until all the shells are wide open.
Bring to the boil a big sauce pan filled with salted water and once it's boiling add the pasta. Five minutes before the pasta is cooked (al dente, remind you! So if on the package is stated 14 minutes, cook the pasta for 12), add the broccoli flowers. Drain everything and add it to the pan with the mussels and let it cook for other two minutes, stirring constantly. Serve, sprinkled with some minced parsley.

Linguine con le aringhe

Last time I went to my fishmonger I found fresh herring fillets at 2.50 € per kilo! Of course I’ve bought a kilo: they are good, healthy and surprisingly cheap!

3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
3 herring fillets, skinned and diced
6-8 cherry tomatoes, diced
few branches of dill
10 black olives
200 g of linguine


Bring to the boil a lot of water for the pasta.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a big pan and fry the garlic. Add the diced herrings, let the m cook for 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes, dill and the olives. Let it cook. In the meanwhile, salt the water and cook the pasta al dente. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan, add the last tablespoon of olive oil and turn everything together.

Ode to catalogna (or chicory catalogna)

I LOVE CATALOGNA! I just boil it, add some flaked chilli pepper from Sicily and a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and use it as a pasta sauce… It’s good, healthy, bitter and still wonderfully tasty. I like to leave it a bit crunchy…
I could eat it forever and ever…

Pasticcio

You should know I’m widely know as pasticciona, a really messy girl… I mess up with everything, all the time, and of course I mess up in the kitchen… Should I remind you my ugly cake attempt???
Anyway, this one is not really a pasticcio, but pumpkin cannelloni… But it looks like a pasticcio…

1 pumpkin, medium size
Amaretti, to taste
Salt and pepper
Parmesan

Ready made lasagne sheets (yes, yes, and so???)

For the béchamel sauce:
33 g of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
800 ml of milk

Clean the pumpkin and steam it until tender.
Make béchamel sauce: heat the milk. Melt the butter in a large saucepan with a heavy base, add the flour, let it toast for few minutes then add the hot milk. Turn to dissolve any lump and cook it until thick, but still liquid. Instead of turning until done I use a hand blender: it’s quicker and lumps proof!

Mix the steamed pumpkin with amaretti (I used 16, but it’s absolutely a matter of taste: add one by one and try it), salt and pepper, and 4 tablespoons of Parmesan.

On a shallow ovenproof dish spread a layer of béchamel.
Lay a sheet of lasagne and spread a spoonful of the pumpkin purèe. Roll it and lay it in the dish. Continue until the end of the ingredients. Cover everything with the béchamel and bake in a preheated oven, 180° C, for 25 minutes, or until golden. Let it stand for 10 minutes outside the oven, then serve.

Pasta & rice

Zuppa bianchissima

Gnocchi di semola di grano duro
Sugo alla salsiccia

Radiatori con bietole e bottarga

Pasta con frutti di mare e pomodorini

Orecchiette con pesto di rucola e burrata

Lasagne con pomodorini e pesce spada

Pasta con agretti

Timballo di spaghettini e melanzane

Trofie al pesto di feta

Fregolotto

Pasta al Roquefort

Orecchiette with red bell peppers

Pumpkin risotto

Indian curry rice



Indice ricette