Fabrizio Biagi was a hunter and made pici, the hand-rolled pasta, to go with ragù made from his catch. Now his time is taken up cooking and painting so he leaves the hunting to other men.
Fabrizio showed me the juniper berries that he collected in the woods nearby. Apparently they are harvested in an upturned umbrella – the locals bang the branches and the berries fall into it. Antonella took me to the window and pointed out where the pigeons came from on a nearby farm as well as the olive trees that provided the cooking oil. Between them they could point out the provenance of nearly everything we were about to eat.
The ragù, also known as ragù dell’aia (meaning what was roaming around the farmyard earlier!), works for other birds such as pheasant, quails or partridge, as well as other types of pasta. My favourite is fresh pappardelle or, if using dried pasta, spaghetti would work well. Fabrizio feels that the time, wine and aroma (flavourings) used for marinating are the most important part as the flavour is developed then. He likes to use a local Chianti wine.