VENICE

Food

Venetian cuisine has rustic origins, but trade with the Middle and Far East in the time of the Republic’s glory enriched and varied the stock of recipes.
The galleons of the Serenissimo returned from long voyages carrying to the lagoon city salt, pepper, ginger, and even saffron from faraway China: spices at the time unknown, able to stimulate the fantasies of local cooks who brought to life a unique culinary artistry.
Even today, Venetian cooking seems to renew the freshness of these fragrances with elaborately prepared dishes and refined tastes that often bring to mind the flavors of far-off places.
To eat Venetian means above all to taste the fish of the upper Adriatic. This is high-quality seafood of an almost infinite variety that, thanks to the fantasy of the recipes, lends itself to the most exquisite gastronomical variations. Crabs, polyps, cappesante, moeche, and cuttlefish are served in refined ways that reflect the particular sensibility and nobility of the Venetians.

For example, granseola is a large crab that becomes a delicious antipasto on the tables of the Serenissima: it is thrown into boiling water and, at the end of its cooking, flavored with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice.
A plate showing the Asian influence on the local gastronomy is, on the other hand, that of sardines in carp (in saor), in other words, braised and accompanied with onions, candied fruits, pine nuts, and vinegar, showing the typical alternation of salted and sweet foods.

Another typical antipasto of the Venetian coast is the mixture of boiled fish and shellfish, such as canocchie, garusoli, and polyps. Among the main dishes worth mentioning are the delicate risottos, prepared with fish, shellfish, and vegetables.
We recall black cuttlefish risotto, risotto with shrimp, with eel, with ghiozzi and cappe (clams and telline). Shrimp and granseole are also excellent for pastas, accompanied even by bigoi (desalinated anchovies). Among the second dishes are pan-fried cuttlefish, stewed eel, and all the catch of the Adriatic: sardines, rombi, moscardini, cefali. The Venetian ěfritter,î made with expert technique, is internationally famous.

But there’s more than just fish on Venetian tables. Among the dishes that have made their gastronomy famous, we find liver Venetian style, probably the most noted of the Serenissima’s specialties that one can taste today in almost any part of the world.
In practical terms this means liver sliced and cooked in a soffritto, a mixture of oil, onions, butter, and parsley: a dish that one is almost obliged to taste during a visit to Venice. Another famous dish is rice and bisi, or peas, which opened the Doge’s lunch on the day of the Festival of Saint Mark.

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