Eating and drinking
Venetian cuisine is full of traditional dishes, especially that in the city. Dishes are made using all types of fish and vegetables, with only one limit - the seasons. Indeed it is hard to find anything on the menu with ingredients that are out of season.
We can begin our journey to discover Venetian food with cicchetti found in the bacari and that must be eaten with an ombra of wine.
Cicchetti
Typical Venetian cicchetti are:
- fried crab claws
- meat balls
- half boiler eggs with anchovies
- fried vegetables
- moscardini with polenta
- soppressa with polenta
- toasted bread with creamed cod (cooked in milk and then creamed)
- ! sardee in saor - sardines cooked and marinated with onions and vinegar, flavoured with raisins and pine nuts
Risotto
- famous for scampi and cuttlefish risottos
- ! risi e bisi - risotto made with peas
Pasta
- spaghetti with clams
- spaghetti with cuttlefish ink
- bigoli in sauce [a sort of long thin pasta with a hole in the middle and with an anchovies and onions sauce]
- pasta e fagioli [a tasty winter pasta and bean soup]
Main courses
Fish
- the scampi alla busara, with tomato and chilli pepper, cooked in sauce
- cuttlefish cooked in sauce
- Fried moeche - small crabs fished during the changeover period (spring and fall) when their shells are soft and edible
Meat
- fegato alla veneziana: this is soft veal liver stewed with a lot of onions
Castraure
The famous purple artichokes that are grown on the islands in the lagoon, especially on Sant’Erasmo. They are rare and precious, and were recently classified by Slow Food. They can be eaten in several different ways but only during the harvesting period, which runs from the end of April until the second half of June.
Venetian wine
- Prosecco di Conegliano
- Valpolicella
- Bianco di Custoza
- Amarone
Digestives
- sgroppino (lemon sorbet and prosecco)
- a small glass of Bassano Grappa
- zaeti typical Venetian sweets
- biscuits prepared with polenta flour and raisins
- bussolai buranelli, butter biscuits made in a round shape dunked in sweet Vin Santo
