A TASTE OF HISTORY
With fresh vineyards in the lagoon and ancient recipes back on the menu, Venetians are rediscovering their gastro-heritage
Locanda Cipriani serves
great traditional foodText: Franca Gallinaro
Over the centuries, the city of the gondoliers has accumulated a rich treasure trove of culinary traditions. Visitors, however, may find it hard to track down a plate of authentic Venetian food. Too often the restaurants and trattorias that line the piazzas and narrow roads serve up stereotypical, characterless dishes. But change is afoot: after years of inertia, Venice’s gastronomic scene is buzzing, and numerous initiatives are underway to revive traditions that had virtually disappeared from day-to-day dining.
“There are too many tourist menus around,” says Enrica Rocca, the owner of a cookery school based in Venice and London, “but in recent years, more and more restaurants have started offering more unusual, authentic dishes, and not necessarily at exorbitant prices.”
Local classic pasta
and beansThe enthusiasm and dedication of the Slow Food movement has certainly played a role in the relaunch of Venetian cuisine. Gino Bortoletto, president of Slow Food Veneto, is a keen supporter of local producers, but he says that to really appreciate Venetian produce it needs to have been prepared in the right way: “The experience of remarkable dishes like moleche [soft-shelled crabs] can only be conveyed by tasting them. It’s a journey into unadulterated pleasure: these crunchy red-gold morsels with their sweet flavour are a truly sensory experience, which you just have to try once to remain forever enraptured.”
Foremost among the projects to relaunch the local cuisine is a viticulture scheme at Tenuta Scarpa Volo on Mazzorbo, a small Venetian island linked to Burano by a bridge. The Bisol family, the famous vine-growers of Valdobbiadene, is trying to rediscover and apply old Venetian traditions by salvaging and restoring an old walled vineyard which will host culinary events and courses. “This project is our personal homage to the history and culture of the Venetian lagoon,” director Gianluca Bisol explains enthusiastically.
See the famous
glassware then eat on
Murano island
Photo: AlamyThe same passion is also being shown by local cooks, more and more of whom are rediscovering historical methods of food preparation. Yet, despite this specialisation, many recipes are deceptively straightforward.
“Venetian cuisine is extremely simple, mostly based on fish,” explains Enrica Rocca. “Some of the typical dishes are canocie lesse (boiled mantis shrimps), pasta with clams, folpetti (tiny octopuses). Raw fish is also very fashionable at the moment: tuna, scampi or sea bass with a drop of olive oil; or a scallop carpaccio.”
Local produce at a
Venetian market stallIndeed, numerous ancient Venetian dishes are now back on the city’s menus: risi e bisi (pea risotto); figa’ a la venexiana (liver fried with onions); melansane al fungheto (aubergines sautéed with garlic and parsley); and more. It’s easy to detect the trace of the past in these recipes: sardee in saur (sardines pickled with vinegar and onion) evokes images of ships arriving at the old port from distant countries and cultures, or fagioli a la maniera del ghetto (ghetto-style beans), which were cooked for about eight hours by the city’s historic Jewish community.
If you want to try these and other Venetian flavours, there are two words to remember: cicheti and bacari. Together, they offer a genuinely unmissable culinary experience. Bacari are inns which, instead of a full meal, serve cicheti — snacks and samples of typical recipes like folpetti, hard-boiled eggs, cold meats and salami, sardines and fried salt cod — all accompanied by a glass of good wine, also called ombra, (shadow). Where they were once considered places for people who couldn’t afford to eat in a restaurant, bacari are now hugely popular with the most refined clientele. They include the Bacaro Do Mori, near Ruga Rialto, with its traditional menu, and the Osteria Alla Botte in the Campo San Bartolomeo area which is famous for its bigoi in salsa (made using bigoli, a type of long pasta typical of Venice), and pasta e fasioi (pasta with beans). Meanwhile in Cannaregio you can find Alla Vedova, one of the oldest inns in the city, which serves castraure (little lagoon artichokes) and salt cod with polenta.
The bridge linking
Burano to Mazzorbo
Photo: AlamyOut of all the mini-portions served in the bacari, risoto de go is also very popular, in fact it’s the most famous fish risotto in the area. Gianni Moriani, a professor at the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice and the creator of Let’s Go, a culinary event which took place last February on Mazzorbo, describes the go, a fish common within the lagoon, as “an architect, because it digs itself a house in the mud, where it uses its resounding call to attract females — as many as 10, so it’s a sultan of fish”.
You can try an excellent go risotto on the island of Burano at the Gatto Nero trattoria, and similarly the Locanda Cipriani offers an irresistible risotto alla torcellana on the nearby island of Torcello. And if you want to try recipes based on vegetables from the local market gardens, all you have to do is stop at the Ca’ Vignotto agritourist centre on Sant’Erasmo (near Chiesa).
Locanda CiprianiAlthough fish has a place of honour on Venetian tables, it’s worth remembering that the area is also famous for its game. Hunting birds in the marshland was a fashionable pastime as early as the Middle Ages, when the game was cooked on a skewer and stuffed with herbs. Today, quails and other small birds are still cooked on a skewer and served with soft polenta. This is the famous polenta e osei (game), as served by the chef Maddalena in her eponymous trattoria on Mazzorbo.
Info
Bacaro Cantina Do Mori, San Polo 429 - Rialto, Venezia (VE)
Tel. +39 041 5225401
Osteria Alla Botte, Calle della Bissa San Marco, 5482, Venezia (VE)
Tel. +39 041 5209775
Ca’ D’Oro Alla Vedova, Ramo Ca, D’Oro, Cannaregio, Venezia (VE)
Tel. +39 041 5285324
Trattoria Busa alla Torre da Lele
Campo San Stefano, 3, Murano (VE)
Tel. +39 041 739 662
Agriturismo Ca’ Vignotto, ia Forti, 71, localité Chiesa, Sant’Erasmo (VE)
Tel. +39 041 244 40 00
Locanda Cipriani, Piazza Santa Fosca, 29, Torcello (VE)
Tel. +39 041 730 150 www.locandacipriani.com
Trattoria al Gatto Nero, Via Giudecca, 88, Burano (VE)
Tel. +39 041 730 120 www.gattonero.com
Trattoria “Alla Maddalena”
Fondamenta Santa Caterina, 7 Mazzorbo (VE), Tel. +39 041 730 151
Bisol Desiderio & Figli Azienda Agricola,
S. Stefano di Valdobbiadene (Fol) Treviso, Tel. +39 0423 900 138 www.bisol.it