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 Veneto Food:
Venetian fast food -
Photo (c) James Lawson
The 'Veneto' is an essentially agricultural region growing
wheat, maize, mulberry bushes, olive, fruit trees and vines. The industrial
sector includes oil refineries, smelting works and chemical plants which are
concentrated in the vicinity of Venice at Mestre-Marghera, as well
as a large production of hydro-electric energy in the valleys of the Pre-Alps.
The latter supplies the textile industry.
The landscape is punctuated by two small volcanic groups, the Berici
Mountains south of Vicenza and the Euganean Hills near
Padua. The slopes of these blackish heights carry vines, peach orchards
and are the site of hot springs.
In the Po delta (Polesine) and that of the Adige lie
impoverished, grandiose and desolate areas, subject to river floods. Following
reclamation certain areas are farmed on an industrial scale for wheat and sugar
beet.
The coastline takes the form of lagoons (lido) separated from the sea
by spits of sand pierced by gaps (porti). Venice, whose industrial
sector is continually growing, is built on piles in one of these lagoons.
Veneto food: as in the Po Plain, the people eat polenta, a form
of semolina made from maize, sometimes accompanied by little birds,
risi e bisi (rice and peas), and
fegato alla veneziana (calf's liver fried with onions). The shell-fish,
eels and dried cod (baccala) are excellent. The best wines come from the
district of Verona; Valpolicella and Bardolino, rose' or red, perfumed and
slightly sparkling,
and Soave, which is white and strong.
From the 'Michelin Guide to Italy'
Venetian cuisine is known for its variety of dishes and ingredients. This
can be expected in a lagoon city which, though born of its own waters, has
always maintained close ties with the mainland as well as flourishing trade
routes with many faraway countries, from northern Europe to the far East.
Here you find not only the dried Baltic cod and the
exquisite Asian spices, but also the genuine if perhaps more modest fresh
vegetables from the estuary islands, fish from the Venice lagoon and game
fowl captured in the barene, or shallows. A visit to Venice offers an
opportunity to discover a fascinating gastronomic tradition.
Venetian cuisine is simple and tasty, fish-based.
Vongole, Capparozzoli, Cappe (clams), Cozze (mussels), Gamberi, Gamberetti,
Gamberoni, Scampi, Astici (all in the family of shrimps), Seppie, Seppioline
(cuttle-fish) are the most popular. It is, however, difficult if not
impossible to have fresh fish on Mondays because most fishermen do not work
on Sunday nights. You will also notice there is no fresh fish at the market
or in the shops just frozen.
Grappa
Grappa is grape pomace, the remnants of winegrape
pressings. Derived from the crushed skins, pulp and seeds of winegrapes,
grappa is produced throughout Italy and is generally considered to be one
of the most elementary of distilled spirits-an authentic case of
Distilling 101, if you will. Regardless of which accounts of the history
of distilling you adhere to, it is certain that distillation of some forms
of grape juice was occurring in Italy by the 12th century. For centuries,
grappa has been the peasant's drink of choice. Farmers in bucolic
districts such as Piedmont, the Veneto, Umbria, Friuli, and Tuscany
customarily wanted a strong drink to help patch up their workday wounds
and salve their aches for the night It was grappa that became Italy's
national spirit. It is a liqueur now.
Specialty Foods of Veneto
 Risi, or rice, is a mainstay on the Venetian
menu, but it’s generally served differently than in most other areas of Italy.
Rice is never eaten by itself, but always cooked and served with other
ingredients, such as lamb, sausages, chicken livers, tripe, beans, and
raisins, as well as with fish and shellfish. The most famous Venetian rice
dishes are
risi e bisi (rice and fresh peas) and risi e figadini
(rice with chicken livers), which have the consistency of a thick soup. Risotto
– made with fish, beans, chicken, veal, or vegetables such as fennel or zucchini
– is also popular in the Veneto, with specialties such as Risotto alla sbirraglia:
spring chicken and lean veal braised with rice and vegetables and Risotto primavera: diced string beans, artichokes,
tomatoes, carrots and potatoes united with peas and asparagus
tips and braised with rice in the spring.
Another specialty Veneto food is Baccalà, dried, salted cod
fish, is one food that the people of Venice and the larger region of Veneto agree on.
It is widely served throughout the area, at gala dinners or on everyday tables,
often mixed with polenta into a delicate, delicious “cream” that is eaten as an
appetizer with cocktails or as a first course.
Baccala’ alla Visentina,
which is a version of baccalà that hails from the city of Vicenza, is a
slow-cooking dish with many variations, and which ingredients should or should
not be included (milk, celery, potatoes) is often the subject of heated but
friendly debate among Venetian food lovers.
Polenta, a modest dish made from
cornmeal, is a staple food of much of Northern Italy, but nowhere is it more
popular than in the Veneto region. It was (and still is) traditionally prepared
by stirring cornmeal, water, and salt over heat constantly for 40 to 45 minutes
with a wooden stirring stick called a mescola. (To ease the burden,
families would often take “shifts” as stirrers.) The resulting “mush” is then
poured onto a wooden board to cool, and cut with kitchen string while still hot
(a knife can be used once the polenta is set). Today, automatic stirring
machines make the job easier, but they do not supply the togetherness of sitting
around the kitchen and stirring the fragrant polenta as it cooks. Pasticcio di polenta: layers of fried polenta and stew
of wood pigeon with mushrooms baked in pie crust.
Veneto’s food contribution to Italy’s pasta culture is a style of
fresh pasta called bigoli, which gets its name from
the traditional kitchen implement that’s used to make it, called a bigolaro,
a four-inch-wide bronze tube. Bigoli, a long, spaghetti-style pasta
with a hole in its middle, is made on a hand-operated press by forcing pasta
dough through the bigolaro, then cutting the strands to the
desired length. A typical Venetian preparation is bigoli in salsa,
which tosses the bigoli with a delicious sauce of anchovies, olive oil,
and cooked onions and bigoli co l'anara: “spaghetti” and sauce of duck liver
and innards with vegetables and herbs.
(c) 1997-2008 E. Massetti
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