• 1 cleaned rabbit (veal and/or lamb shanks are a good substitute), 1 bunch of celery, 3 whole peeled carrots, 1 large yellow onion, 1 can tomato paste, 1 bottle red wine (Chianti is preferred but Merlot or any other full bodied red will do), 4 cups beef or chicken stock, 2 to 3 sprigs thyme, 1 sprig rosemary, salt & pepper, 3 cloves garlic, 1 bay leaf, 1 tspn. dried lavender, 4 tspn. olive oil, Parmesan, 300 g flour, 100 g semolina flour, 6 egg yolks, 1 egg white, pinch of salt

1. Pasta Directions:
2. Take flour and make a "mountain" with a well in the middle. Add egg yolks, egg white and salt. Mix the eggs in with a fork until mixture can be kneaded. Kneed until the dough is elastic and smooth. Flour a rolling surface and roll out dough with a rolling pin or with a pasta machine so that you can see shadows through the dough. Cut into foot long sections and be sure to add flour between the sections if you stack them or else they will stick. Roll sections up length wise and cut into 1/4 inch sections. Unroll and cover noodles in flour and keep in a cool place. Repeat until desired amount of pasta is made.
3. Ragu
4. Heat oven to 225 degrees. Season meat thoroughly with salt and pepper. Heat a medium deep sided pot on medium high. When warm add 3 tspn. of olive oil. Add meat and sear on each side until brown. About 5 minutes. When meat is browned on all sides, add wine and chicken stock.
5. Cover and bring to a boil. When boiling take off heat and place in oven. Cook at 225 for 8 hours. After meat has cooked, remove from oven and let cool. Julienne (long thin strips) then fine dice the carrots and celery. Fine dice the onion as well. Heat a medium pot on medium high. When hot add 1 tspn. of olive oil and the mirepoix (celery, carrot, onion mixture). While vegetables are cooking, remove meat from braising liquid and take a fork and "pull" the meat away from the bone. When onions are transparent, take a ladle full of braising liquid and add to vegetables. Add the meat at this time as well. Add can of tomato paste as well as all of the herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Let simmer and keep adding braising liquid as time passes until the ragu liquid becomes more viscous. About 2 hours. When done take off heat and let cool. Take your tagiatelle and cook in a large pot of salted water until al dente. 2-3 minutes. When al dente, strain and sprinkle with olive oil to avoid the pasta sticking to itself. In a medium saucepan, add a ladle of the ragu and heat on medium high. When liquid in pan has reduced, add pasta and toss with a sprinkle of olive oil. Take off heat and serve. Add Parmesan to taste.
6. Tips
7. Remember fresh pasta cooks much faster than dried. Be sure to constantly watch your pasta.
8. Keep plenty of flour around keep pasta from sticking. This is very important if you are making much tagiatelle.
9. Make sure your pasta water tastes as salty as the sea.
10. If you have a Kitchen Aide or any other type of electric mixer with a dough hook, USE IT!
11. You cannot over knead your dough. If you think you have kneaded it enough, keep kneading.
12. If you use rabbit or lamb/veal shanks, be sure to remove silver skin and excess sinew.
13. Using a combination of lamb and veal yields the best results. The more meats, the merrier.
14. 8 hours is the recommended minimum. The longer you braise the meat the better it gets.

Duccio Bagnoli's kitchen at Apicius Culinary Institute in Florence, Italy was an enchanting place. The smells coming from the kitchen were intoxicating. Each dish being prepared created its own unique essence that somehow melded with all the others to create a beautiful perfume of culinary delights: braised rabbit, wild boar ragu, Ribolita, and polpetta just to name a few. Each was rich in taste but also love from the chef and his students who were preparing them.

To most who have met him, Duccio Bagnoli personifies the idea of how an Italian chef should not only cook and act, but also look. He has black hair with a scruffy beard, a belly that protrudes from under his apron, and an infectious smile that could light up any room no matter the size. His English is as broken as his students' Italian and yet nothing is lost in translation. Duccio is in love with food and that supersedes any and all language barriers. Hearing him talk about the dishes prepared by his mother and grandmother, you could sense that these recipes were as important to his childhood as learning to kick a ball or ride a bike. The recipes' secrets have been guarded as tightly as money in bank vault and the dishes themselves, prideful displays of years of family tradition, date back longer than he cares to remember.

Duccio is like most Italians in that he believes that preparing and eating food with family and friends is a vital aspect of life that should be enjoyed in every way. This translates directly to the way he not only cooks but also how he decides what to prepare. Local and seasonal goods picked or harvested at the right time and prepared with minimal additional ingredients are becoming increasingly popular here in Bozeman, but to Duccio it is a way of life. Fried zucchini blossoms filled with marscapone can only be prepared in the few weeks and sometimes days that the blossoms appear in spring. To Duccio, bruschetta is only good when the tomatoes are fresh from the vine, the basil freshly cut from the garden in late July and never prepared with anything other than olive oil, salt, and pepper. This knowledge, and the patience required to wait for food to be as good as it possibly can be before eating it, is something to be marveled at.

Overall, what sets Duccio apart from all the others is not only his passion for food, but also the enjoyment of passing that knowledge and love of food onto others. Whether his audience is his students or his children, he loves to share his excitement for food with anyone who will listen. Should you ever be fortunate enough to taste one of his dishes or share a conversation with him, you will immediately understand why he is one of the most well respected and adored members of the culinary community in Florence.