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a white pasta bowl with a portion of fat bigoli egg pasta noodles covered in duck ragù and sprinkled with Grana Padano grated cheese with a view of Italian rooftops out of the window

Classic Italian Duck Ragù w/Bigoli Pasta (Bigoli al Ragù d’Anatra)


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  • Author: Kelly
  • Total Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
  • Yield: 6 to 8 servings depending on hunger level 1x

Description

Bigoli with duck ragù is down-home regional Italian cooking at its best. This slow-cooked ragù made with duck, soffrito, garlic, herbs, spices, white wine, butter, stock, milk, and extra virgin olive oil all simmered to perfection and tossed with bigoli (pronounced Bee-go-lee) or pappardelle pasta. Don’t want to de-bone a whole duck? Use duck breast or duck legs instead. No matter what, this pasta recipe is sure to impress. 


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 3 ounces fresh bigoli egg pasta per person (80g)
  • 1 lb 5 ounces duck meat from 1 whole duck, deboned and skin removed (610g)
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter (35g)
  • 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (55g)
  • 1 tablespoon duck fat (13g)
  • 12 fresh sage leaves, chopped (4g)
  • 3 tablespoons + 1/2 teaspoon dried rubbed sage (about 2025 whole dried sage leaves crumbled)
  • 1 sprig of fresh rosemary, stem removed and rosemary chopped
  • 1/2 to 1 sprig freshly dried rosemary, crumbled
  • 2 1/2 ounces carrot, diced (about 2 medium carrots) (65g)
  • 3 1/2 ounces yellow onion, diced (about 1 1/2 medium onions) (100g)
  • 1 medium celery stalk rib, diced (40g)
  • 2 garlic cloves, smashed (8g)
  • 1 dried bay leaf
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste (6g)
  • freshly cracked black pepper (30 turns on peppermill), or to taste
  • 1 cup of homemade or storebought duck stock or chicken stock
  • 2 ounces dry white wine (pinot grigio, soave, etc.) (50g)

spice-infused milk ingredients

  • 5 tablespoons whole milk (70g)
  • a pinch of ground cinnamon
  • 1 inch piece of cinnamon stick
  • 1 clove
  • freshly grated nutmeg (about 7-10 quick bursts on a Microplane grater)


Instructions

  1. Clean and debone the duck. Break down the duck by cutting it down the center of the back and opening it up. Remove all of the skin and fat to a separate bowl. Using a boning knife (or another sharp knife) remove the meat from the bones and place it into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse the meat about 5-6 times, or until the meat is about the size of ground pork. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Reserve the bones to make duck stock.
  2. Render the duck fat from the skin. (You can skip this step altogether and move on to step 3, but I don’t like to waste anything. And duck fat is like liquid gold in the kitchen). In a large dutch oven or another heavy-bottomed pot, add the duck skin and excess duck fat in a single layer and turn the heat on to medium. Cook slowly over medium heat until the fat has completely rendered and the duck skin is crispy. Remove the crispy skin and pour the fat into a heat-proof container. 
  3. Infuse the milk. In a small pot heat the milk until just before boiling, add the pinch of cinnamon, cinnamon stick, clove, and a little freshly grated nutmeg. Allow the spices to steep in the milk while you proceed with the recipe. Strain the milk just before adding it to the ragù.
  4. Fry the herbs. In the same pot, add the olive oil, butter, 1 tablespoon of duck fat, chopped fresh sage leaves, chopped fresh rosemary, and garlic. Sautée until the sage and rosemary are crispy, and the garlic is just golden brown. 
  5. Make the soffrito. Add the onions, carrots, celery, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir the mixture to combine, cover with a lid, reduce heat to low, and cook stirring occasionally for about 10-12 minutes, or until vegetables are soft and translucent but not browned. 
  6. Cook the ground duck. Add the ground duck to the soffrito, dried rubbed sage, dried rosemary, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and black pepper to taste. Stir to combine and cook over low heat covered for 15 minutes or until the bottom of the pan starts to reveal a fond (browning). 
  7. Deglaze the pan + simmer the ragù.  Add the white wine and simultaneously scrape the brown bits from the bottom of the pan using a wooden spoon as you stir the mixture. Cook for a couple of minutes to allow some of the alcohol to evaporate. Next, add the stock, strained milk, and a bay leaf. Bring the mixture to a boil,  reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook for about 1 hour. Adjust seasonings adding more salt and pepper if necessary (you may also remove the bay leaf at this point according to your tastes). Return the lid, and continue cooking over low heat for another 40 to 60 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened into a ragù. 
  8. Cook the pasta and finish the ragù. In lightly salted boiling water, cook pasta to al dente according to package instructions. At just about 3 minutes before noodles are cooked to al dente, ladle in approximately 1/4 cup starchy pasta cooking water to the ragù to help emulsify the sauce and better coat the noodles.  Adjust seasonings, and add strained pasta to the sauce. Toss to combine and serve with freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano cheese and Enjoy!.

Notes

  • You can add a little pancetta if you’d like to for extra flavor and fat.
  • You can substitute different forms of sage for the other if you don’t have fresh, freshly dried, or dried rubbed sage. Just remember that ground sage will always be more potent than freshly dried sage leaves and dried rubbed sage. And fresh sage leaves will always be more flavorful. This is the reason I choose to use dried rubbed sage and fresh sage leave. See sage equivalents below.
  • If you can’t find freshly made bigoli egg pasta, substitute fresh (or dried) pappardelle egg pasta. Just be sure to look for egg pasta and not a regular semolina flour pasta. Egg pasta’s consistency and sauce absorption ability is the perfect complement to this duck ragù. And whatever you do, don’t use spaghetti noodles. Bigoli tastes and feels nothing like spaghetti and it’s not a good match for this ragù.
  • You can use ground duck meat from your local butcher, to replace having to buy and debone a whole duck.  You may also use duck breast and leg meat (or a combination of them both), if you can’t find a whole duck or just don’t want to break it down and debone it.

Sage Equivalents + Measurements

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage = 1 teaspoon dried sage
12 fresh sage leaves = 1 teaspoon dried sage
12 fresh sage leaves = 1 teaspoon dried sage

-Ground sage is made by grinding whole leaves into a fine powder (like how other powdered herbs are made). While rubbed sage is made by rubbing dried whole sage leaves rubbed together to create a light fluffy mix.
Rubbed sage is lighter and less concentrated than ground sage so a teaspoon of rubbed sage will be less intense than a teaspoon of ground sage.
  • Prep Time: 1 hour
  • Cook Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
  • Category: Pasta
  • Method: Slow-Simmered
  • Cuisine: Italian

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1/2 cup
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