Nigella

Bigoli Con Salsa – Pasta with Anchovy Sauce

1/21/2005 09:38:00 PM

Anchovies... onions... garlic... cooked slowly in a pan, and tossed through long pasta.

Sounds like a recipe for success, right? Well, unfortunately not. This recipe comes from the Venetian Feast chapter in Nigella’s Feast, and according to the domestic goddess herself, “the anchovies here are mellow and, with the soft-cooked onions, have a savoury but honeyed intensity – not strong, just deep-toned and harmonious”.

This is fine for all you weirdo anchovy-haters out there, but what about us, the anchovy-lovers? Of course, this is not the fault of the recipe – as I read the Nigella’s recipe and description, I should have realized that we weren’t going to get a strong anchovy hit out of it, but oh well. Live and learn.

The onion-garlic-anchovy mixture smelled heavenly in the pan however...

Mmm... Grey

But in the finished product, sadly, the sweet onion taste overpowered the poor little anchovies. In fact, I think that “Pasta with Onion Sauce” would be a more appropriate title.


Bigoli Con Salsa in bowl

I thought it tasted ok, but wouldn’t rush to make it again, especially considering the lukewarm reception from my family.

Daniel: This is pretty garlicky.
Me: Too garlicky?
Daniel: Yeah.

Mum: This could do with a lot more anchovies.

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1 comments

  1. Hi, I was looking for a recipe and I saw yours. I'm venetian and about Nigella's Bigoli in Salsa (with anchovy sause) I'm a little puzzled.....
    if you want to try to cook them again, try the original recipe without sugar, milk, butter and the anchovies has to be bought salted. then you will wash them with a little fresh water and make the fillet that will be cooked utill melted.
    for four persons 200g white onions and 70/100 g salted anchovies.
    in this way you'll have the taste on the anchovies.
    Sebastiano

    ReplyDelete

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