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.