Venetian bigoli in salsa: onions stewed slowly into a cream, anchovies melted in the oil and rough bigoli. The lean-day dish, in 50 minutes.
Introduction
Bigoli in salsa is the most Venetian first course there is, and one of the humblest. There are three ingredients: onion, salted anchovies and bigoli, the long, thick pasta, rough to the touch, that in the Veneto was made at home with a press. The onion cooks slowly in oil until it becomes a sweet, pale golden cream, the anchovies melt into it, and the sauce that results is sweet and savoury at once, without a gram of meat or cheese. In Venice it is the dish of Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, but in the osterie it is eaten all year round.
The recipe is simple, and for that very reason it has two places where things go wrong. The first is the onion: it must stew, not fry, over a low heat and with a splash of water, for a good half hour. If it takes on colour it turns bitter and the sauce loses its sweetness. The second is the heat: the anchovies are melted with the heat off or nearly off, crushing them with the spoon, because if they fry they turn hard and salty instead of dissolving. The pasta does the rest, finished in the pan with a ladle of its cooking water.
In the glass we pour the Pinot Grigio DOC from La Caneva dei Biasio, a dry white from the eastern Veneto with aromas of yellow fruit and toasted almond, which cleans the oil from the palate and goes along with the sweetness of the onion. For the sauce we use the Olio Extravergine Veneto del Grappa DOP from Oro de Pòe, and the Bigoli all'uovo from SoloTreviso.
The History of Bigoli in Salsa
The bigolo is a pasta of the Veneto, and it was born from a tool: the bigolaro, a brass or bronze press that was clamped to the edge of the table and from which, as a crank was turned, the dough came out in long, thick strands with a rough surface. Tradition ties the press to Padua, where at the beginning of the seventeenth century a pasta maker is said to have obtained the privilege to build it, and ever since the bigolo has remained the region's home pasta. There are several explanations for the origin of the name; the most often quoted links it to «bigat», the caterpillar, because of its shape. In dialect it is called «bigoi».
The sauce of onion and salted fish, on the other hand, is a story of Venice and of the Church calendar. On lean days, when meat was forbidden, Venetian families ate fish, and the fish that kept best, and cost least, was salted fish: anchovies and sardines packed in salt. For those days the bigolo was made dark, with wholemeal soft wheat flour and no eggs, and dressed with stewed onion and anchovies. That is how bigoli in salsa became the dish of Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and from there it passed into the osterie, where it is eaten all year round. Today egg bigoli, which are easier to find, are often used as well: the sauce does not change.
Ingredients
For the sauce
- white onions, thinly sliced400 g
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil Veneto del Grappa DOP 500ml80 ml
- salted anchovy fillets, desalted60 g
- water100 ml
- freshly ground black pepperas needed
For the pasta
- Traditional Bigoli all'uovo 250g400 g
- coarse salt for the wateras needed
- chopped parsleyas needed
Nutritional Values per Serving
Values calculated from the recipe's ingredients using the CREA food composition tables, and from the labels of our products where available. They are an estimate per serving, not a laboratory analysis.
Equipment Needed
- Wide, shallow pan with a lid
- Large pot for the pasta
- Wooden spoon
- Ladle
- Knife and chopping board
- Kitchen tongs for turning the pasta
Tip: Salted anchovies are cleaned under a thin stream of cold water: rub off the salt with your fingers, open the fish out like a book, pull out the backbone and separate the two fillets. Then leave them for ten minutes in a bowl of cold water and pat them thoroughly dry on kitchen paper. Anchovies in oil are an acceptable shortcut, but they melt less and give a flatter flavour: if you use them, drain them well and reduce the oil in the sauce.
How to Make Bigoli in Salsa — Venetian Recipe
The onion
Slice the onions very thinly into half-moons. In a wide pan heat three quarters of the oil over a low heat, add the onions and half a glass of water, cover and leave to stew for 30-35 minutes, stirring now and then and adding a splash of water if the bottom dries out. The onions must become very soft, almost a cream, a pale golden colour.
Chef's tip: Do not salt the onions: all the salt comes from the anchovies. And keep the flame at its lowest the whole time: an onion that fries turns bitter, one that stews turns sweet.
The anchovies
When the onions are ready, take off the lid and let the remaining water evaporate. Turn the heat down to the minimum, push the onions to the sides of the pan, pour the rest of the oil into the centre and add the anchovy fillets. Crush them with the wooden spoon until they melt into the oil, then stir everything together with the onions. Turn off the heat and grind over a little pepper.
Chef's tip: The anchovies must not fry: if the oil sizzles, take the pan off the heat for a minute. They should melt, not cook, or they turn hard and saltier.
The pasta
Bring plenty of water to the boil and salt it lightly, because the sauce is already savoury. Cook the bigoli for one minute less than the time on the packet: fresh egg bigoli need 4-5 minutes, dried ones 8-10. Before draining them, set aside a ladle of the cooking water.
Chef's tip: Taste the water before putting in the pasta: it should be barely salted, much less than you would want for a tomato sauce.
The final toss
Drain the bigoli straight into the pan with the sauce, turn the heat back on to medium and add half a ladle of the cooking water. Toss with the tongs for a minute, until the sauce coats the pasta and turns glossy and creamy; if it dries out too much, add more water. Serve at once with a sprinkling of parsley and another grinding of pepper.
Chef's tip: No cheese: it does not go into bigoli in salsa, because it covers the flavour of the anchovies and weighs down a dish that should stay clean.
Wine to Pair with Bigoli in Salsa
Bigoli in salsa is a dish of three ingredients, and all three speak loudly. The salted anchovies, melted in the oil, bring a deep savouriness and that long, almost broth-like flavour that cooks call umami. The onion, stewed for a long time until it becomes a cream, brings a full sweetness that softens the salt without covering it. And the pasta, a thick, rough bigolo, gathers everything up and holds it on the palate. The dish, then, is savoury, sweet and oily all at once, and the wine has to answer each of the three. Tannin should be left out: with preserved fish a red brings out a metallic, bitter note. What is needed is a dry white, with an acidity that cuts through the oil, but not an overly aromatic white, because the aroma of the fish is already pronounced and a perfumed wine clashes with it. And it needs some body, or the onion covers it. Among the whites of the Veneto there are two that sit exactly in this space.
Recommended White Wine
Pinot Grigio DOC — La Caneva dei Biasio — The **Pinot Grigio DOC from La Caneva dei Biasio** comes from grapes of the eastern Veneto and is vinified in steel only, so it reaches the glass clean and direct: ripe yellow fruit, a hint of toasted almond, a dry sip with acidity and salinity in balance. With bigoli in salsa it works on two fronts. The acidity cuts through the oil the sauce was cooked in and leaves the palate ready for the next forkful; the softness of the grape, meanwhile, goes along with the sweetness of the stewed onion without any friction. The almond note also picks up the slightly toasted base the onion takes on in its last minutes in the pan. And it is a white of restrained aroma, which does not compete with that of the anchovies. The limit should be stated: it is not a wine of great structure, and with a sauce made with too many anchovies the savouriness of the dish takes over and the wine seems lighter than it is. With the quantity in the recipe the balance holds. At 12% vol, serve it at 10-12 °C: any colder and the almond and fruit close up.
Want to explore the grape variety? Our guide to Pinot Grigio
The Territorial Alternative
Garganega Verona IGT — Redalmo — If the Pinot Grigio goes with the onion, the **Garganega Verona IGT from Redalmo** answers the fish. It comes from the estate's own vineyards at Monteforte d'Alpone, in the classic Soave zone, on volcanic basalt soils, and that earth comes through in the glass as a clean, almost saline minerality that lines up with the savouriness of the anchovies instead of giving way to it. Five or six months in steel on the fine lees, with weekly bâtonnage, give it a fuller body than the Pinot Grigio, and that body is what is needed when the sauce is dense. The finish is the one typical of the grape, of bitter almond, and against a sweet onion dish it acts as a counterpoint: it leaves the mouthful dry. It is the choice for those who make a richer sauce, with a few more anchovies. The limit is the flip side of the strength: with a light, very sweet sauce, the minerality and bitterness of the finish come through more than the dish. At 12,5% vol, serve it at 10-12 °C.
Craft Beer as an Alternative
Bold Helles Beer — Norah's Farm — With bigoli in salsa a beer works if it does two things: cuts through the oil and adds no bitterness to the salt. The **Bold Helles from Norah's Farm** is a bottom-fermented pale beer in the German style, and it does both. The carbonation carries away the oil of the sauce with every sip, as acidity does in wine, while the malt, with its taste of cereal and bread, belongs to the same family as the pasta and builds a bridge to the sweetness of the onion. The hops stay in the background and the finish, just dry, does not add to the savouriness of the anchovies: a heavily hopped beer would turn bitter and metallic with this dish. The limit lies in its intensity: at 4,8% vol it is a light beer, which refreshes more than it accompanies, and with a very rich sauce it stays a step behind. Serve it at 6-8 °C.
Want to know more about the style? pale craft beers
Variations
- With sardines: instead of anchovies, salted sardines are used, cleaned and desalted in the same way. The flavour is rounder and a little less salty, and it is the version found in some families of the lagoon. The quantities stay the same.
- With dark bigoli: for the oldest version, the one for lean days, bigoli made from wholemeal flour without eggs are used. They have a more rustic, almost nutty flavour and a rougher texture that holds the sauce even better. They cook a few minutes longer than egg bigoli.
- With a spoonful of breadcrumbs: in some osterie the dish is finished with a spoonful of breadcrumbs toasted in a pan with a drizzle of oil, which adds crunch and takes the place of cheese. Add them at the last moment, on the plate, or they go soft.
- The ready-made version: the Sugo per Bigoli from SoloTreviso is the sauce already made, in a jar, with stewed onion, anchovies and oil. Just warm it in a pan with a ladle of the cooking water and toss the bigoli in it: it does not have the sweetness of freshly stewed onion, but it is a plate of bigoli in salsa in a quarter of an hour.
Frequently Asked Questions
Anchovies or sardines in bigoli in salsa?
Both belong to the Venetian tradition. Today **salted anchovies** are mostly used, as they are easier to find and melt better in the oil. **Salted sardines** give a rounder, slightly less salty flavour. What matters is that the fish is salted and not fresh: it is the preserved fish that gives the sauce its long, deep flavour.
Why must the onion not turn golden?
Because the sauce lives on the sweetness of the onion, which balances the salt of the anchovies. An onion that stews slowly, covered and with a splash of water, softens and releases its sugars without burning them. An onion that fries, on the other hand, colours quickly and turns bitter: the sauce is then salty and bitter at once, and loses its balance.
Can spaghetti be used instead of bigoli?
Yes, if you cannot find bigoli. Better to choose spaghettoni or thick spaghetti, bronze-drawn, which have a rough surface and hold the sauce. The bigolo, though, is something else: it is thicker, rougher and firmer to the bite, and that is why the sauce clings to it so well.
Does cheese go into bigoli in salsa?
No. It is a dish born for lean days, without meat and without dairy, and cheese would cover the flavour of the anchovies. If you want something extra on the plate, you can add a spoonful of breadcrumbs toasted in a pan with a drizzle of oil, which adds crunch without weighing the dish down.
What wine goes with bigoli in salsa?
A dry white wine, because the tannin of a red turns bitter and metallic with salted fish. You need a white with an acidity that cuts through the oil and a restrained aroma that does not clash with the anchovies. A **Pinot Grigio** goes with the sweetness of the onion; a **Garganega** from volcanic soils answers the savouriness with its minerality. As an alternative, a lightly hopped, bottom-fermented pale beer.
