Bigoli with sardines are a typical dish of the Venetian tradition, made with egg pasta, bigoli, and a sauce of salted sardines.

This recipe has its origins in the early 1600s...

at the time of the Venetian domination and according to tradition it was consumed at Christmas Eve and on Fridays of Lent, when the Catholic Church imposed not to eat meat as a sign of penance. Usually this pasta is served with meat sauce such as duck but for a leaner version you opt for sardines or bleaks.

Bigoli are a shape of Venetian pasta...

which resembles spaghetti, but with a larger diameter.

It is said that in 1604 a pasta maker of Padua, such "Abundance", was authorized to test a machine of his invention that was to be used to create various formats of long pasta, but customers love these rough spaghetti renamed then bigoli, probably its name comes from bigàt that, in Venetian dialect means caterpillar or perhaps from the Latin bombyx which means worm.