Duck Ragu & Bigoli alla Vicentina (Bigoli con L’Arna)

Here is a classic meal and authentic recipe from Vicenza and surrounding towns. I was a die hard Tuscan fanatic until someone helped me see the light and opened up a whole new world of refined Italian fare and over these next months I will try to share the true Veneto region, one so undiscovered (thank God) and pristine; so get your favorite chair ready because this winter will be full of great secrets and recipes and history on this blog.

Time 25 min to prepare
80 min cooking time
Difficulty – medium

400 g of Bigoli (a very thick spaghetti-like pasta) (recipe below)

1 cleaned duck
1 onion
1 clove garlic
White wine (lots, at least half a bottle)
Fresh sage and rosemary
Tomato sauce
Extra virgin olive oil (try to find one from the Garda area)
Salt and pepper

Chop the onion and garlic and saute in a wide pot with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Place the duck on top of this mix, salt and pepper, add a few sage leaves and a branch of rosemary. With the heat high, add the white wine lower heat and cook on a low flame.

When the duck is almost done, remove from the pan and de-bone the little beast, cutting the meat into TINY pieces. Filter the pan juices then put them back into the pan together with the duck meat (do not separate these juices from the fat, this is what gives the pasta all it's flavor and texture). Add a tablespoon or two of tomato sauce that was previously diluted with water and hot broth (from 1/2 liter to a liter of broth) Add salt to taste and finish cooking until the duck is tender.

Meanwhile, cook the bigoli in lots of salted water, drain and place in the hot pan with the duck ragù and quickly sauté together for no more than 2 minutes.
Garnish with Grana Padano or Grana Trentino

Homemade Bigoli
500 g white flour
50 g butter
4 eggs
Milk
Salt
Pour flour on to working surface; make a crater in the center. Add the softened butter to the crater, the eggs and a pinch of salt. Work together adding a little bit of milk as needed to obtain solid dough. You will need a “bigolaro” to cut this pasta making the necessary form. If you cannot find one, use a fat spaghetti cut. Spread the bigoli out on a floured kitchen towel and let dry before cooking.

Vicenza!

After having a slow leisurely day in the city, soaking up Spritz’s, colors and architecture we floated to our restaurant outside of town, at the top of a small hill overlooking the undulating lush green river valley of Vicenza. Musing over what it was that was making her feel so comfortable in this city and why she felt she could live in this historic city center, acknowledging with respect such Venetian grandeur, she finally cries; “Ah hah,” having realized what it was about the place. This city is compact for a city yet elegant, wealthy and clean and, very well maintained, almost a miniature of the best parts of a city packed into one compact parcel.

There is a sense of welcome, the feeling one might have in their own living room and an ease with which one may move in the city. The streets are direct yet every angle, every corner has something to be uncovered and discovered. The history is multilayered with remnants from Roman, Gothic, Baroque Renaissance and Neoclassical eras all within comfortable reach of the ordinary person.

Back to the trattoria they discovered while spending a few days in this neat city. Al cavallino is a lovely restaurant situated at the very top of Creazzo overlooking the river valley of Vicenza. The ambient is warm and welcoming, the owners proud of what they do and what they offer and how it is presented. Sipping Venegazzù they pondered the flavors of the wine along with bites of sformato di polenta and melted asiago and funghi, little morsels of Puzzone di Moena with green apples all meant to dip into a tiny dish of limpid fragrant honey from the altopiano of Asiago and drank up the view of the surrounding areas.

Cherry Soup!

Dinning at Antico Ristorante agli Schioppi, this creature just had to try the angel hair with black truffle from the mountains surrounding Vicenza (Monte Berici). She hesitated to order them not sure when black truffle season was (a fanatic about white truffles from Alba, season Oct – Jan), but she had a hankering for them and thus, threw her thoughts of doubt to the wind. This dish of heaven was the best pasta she had had in such a long time in fact, Golden Piglet just about fell over telling her how outstanding the flavor of the truffle really was. This restaurant served lots of polenta with the various dishes, not in quantity but just the fact that it accompanied many of the dishes (no kidding, polenta is synonymous with Vicenza)!

They brought an antipasto of baccalà mousse with white grilled polenta that was incredible, sort of reminded her of the fish mousse served on the terrace on the lake at Isola Madre. There was the classic Vincentian veal liver with glazed onions on a bed of polenta and sauce that was worth every bite particularly for liver lovers and for those who are not (moi), it was fantastic; She was so sure she would have hated it, ha! Veal liver is divine; tender and light in flavor and not as dense as beef liver and definitely lacking the heady heavy liver flavor. If anyone hates the taste of beef liver, then you should give this a try just to put your taste buds right with the world. ;-)

Finishing off the meal with a dessert, which she truly had no room for, was definitely one of the smarter choices made in her life one she would not soon forget. This simple and light little offering was called “cherry soup.” These were hand-pitted local grown cherries (Marostica, and Vicenza are famous for their cherries) swimming in their own cherry juice with a dash of a secret spice topped with a tiny ball of spearmint green gelato and cherry liqueur. The soup was served cold with giant soup spoons to ensure you did not miss a drop of the luscious juice. She dreams of picking some cherries from those trees in the garden or buying some in Marostica and making up her own batch of this mix to save and serve on those hot lazy summer evenings…guess she needs to figure out how they made the mint gelato; did they mash and “Cuisinart” the leaves or did they make a very concentrated tisane?

A bottle of Amarone, one of the other famous wines from the Veneto region accompanied this meal and, never having tasted a good glass of it, this little angel was impressed even with 15% alcohol. After a bottle she was far from tipsy because good wine (not that cheap 2-buck Chuck) does not give you headaches, does not turn you tipsy even after a bottle and it is usually consumed over a longer period of time and slowly (slow meals, slow eating). Unfortunately, the Amarone expert Golden Piglet will have to fill you in on the beauty of this wine, this is truly out of Snow White’s league