bigoli

The word bigoli usually refers to a long, thick pasta, but not at the restaurant La Stalla, outside of Assisi in Umbria. There, the word is given to a dish that is a longstanding favourite of the clientele: balls of spinach and ricotta cooked in boiling water. As is the case with many Italian recipe names, there is confusion as to why they are so-called. In this case, it was the unexplained choice of the restaurant founders and has become the name that the regulars use, so it is unthinkable that it will be changed now. I was given a version of this recipe many years ago, one which had no fl our in it, and still make mine that way so that they are different from gnudi. However, do add a tablespoon of fl our if your ricotta is very soft and the bigoli break up.

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Wash the spinach leaves, shake off excess water and put in a pan over a medium heat for about 1 minute, turning the leaves over with a spoon until wilted. Leave to cool slightly. Squeeze the leaves to extract the water and set aside to drain further on kitchen paper, until cool. Then, roughly chop and place in a mixing bowl.

Step 2

Add the ricotta, eggs and nutmeg to the bowl, season with salt and pepper and mix everything together.

Step 3

Take about a dessertspoonful of the mixture in your hands and form it into a cocktail-sausage shape. Repeat until you’ve used all the mixture – it should give you 28–30.

Step 4

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Drop in a few of the bigoli (about 3–4 at a time), taking care not to overcrowd the pan as they need room to move and cook. Rather like gnocchi, the bigoli will sink to the bottom of the pan and then rise to the surface, after about 3–4 minutes, when they are cooked.

Step 5

Carefully remove the bigoli from the water. They are quite fragile so doing this one by one with a slotted spoon is best. Set each batch aside to drain on kitchen paper while you cook the next. Roll the cooked bigoli in the grated cheese, drizzle over the melted butter and serve immediately.