Venice is a dream city, full of charm, monuments, art, life and even good food!
The lagoon cuisine is not just about bacari and spritz, but also includes dishes rich in tradition, super tasty combinations with intense flavour that you absolutely must try!
From antipasto to dessert, here are the 10 best dishes to enjoy straight from the'Serenissima' kitchen.
1 - Baccalà mantecato
Photo by [1]. A pleasantly unprecedented version of the'usual' baccalà (salt cod) that we are used to eating, which becomes a pleasant hors d'oeuvre or a'highlight' of Venetian-style aperitifs. The trick lies in the processing of the raw material: the fish is cooked in milk and then transformed into a soft mousse that, accompanied simply by toasted bread or polenta, becomes a palatable appetiser.
Recommended: as an appetiser or aperitif
Average cost: €12.00 approx.
Main ingredients: codfish, milk, parsley, garlic, oil
2 - Rice and Beans
As is well known, the northern part of the boot is a leader in the cultivation and preparation of dishes in which rice is the main ingredient. Venice is no exception, which, with simplicity but with wisdom in mixing flavours and textures, has made this dish a mainstay of its gastronomy, in great demand among tourists from all over the world. It is rice with peas, or bisi, whose recipe, which may seem apparently simple, has been patented! Risi e bisi are the perfect creamy balance between a soup and a simple risotto.
Recommended for: lunch or dinner
Average cost: €14.00
Main ingredients: rice, bacon, peas
3 - Venetian style liver
As popular as it is difficult to imitate, is this second course of meat!
The dish has an intense flavour, where you will find the contrast of veal liver, cooked only with butter, to the sweet taste of onion (one of the main ingredients of Venetian cuisine).
Accompanied by polenta, it becomes a tasty dish that satiates and satisfies even the most demanding palates.
Recommended for: lunch or dinner
Average cost: €14.00
Main ingredients: calf's liver, onion, butter
4 - Fritole
Atypical Venetian carnival dessert, but very much in demand at any time of the year, these fried balls of dough topped with pine nuts and sultanas or stuffed inside with cream or zabaglione.
First prepared in the 18th century, they are still considered the typical dessert of the Serenissima.
Recommended: as a dessert at the end of a meal or as a snack
Average cost: €2.00
Main ingredients: flour, pine nuts, icing sugar, zabaglione
5 - Polenta and schie
Photo by Joel Mann. Along with onions, polenta is one of the most popular ingredients in Venetian cuisine. In this combination with schie (small grey lagoon shrimps), the yellow or white flour-based food rediscovers new potential, giving it a pleasant and strong flavour in the mouth. Thefish-polenta combination works, and how!
Recommended for: lunch or dinner
Average cost: €18.00
Main ingredients: polenta, schie
6 - Castradina
It used to be called a dish'de obligo su le tole, sia dei povaréti che dei siori, nobili o mercanti' (of obligation on the tables of rich and poor alike).
An ancient traditional dish, it is a mutton and cabbage soup brought to the table and eaten on the eve of the feast of the Madonna della Salute.
The mutton, imported from Albania and Dalmatia, was salted, smoked and dried in the sun and then sold. Today it can be enjoyed in various taverns in the city, a dish with some 400 years of history that should not be missed!
Recommended for: lunch or dinner
Average cost: €25.00
Main ingredients: cured mutton, Savoy cabbage, onion
7 - Bigoli in sauce
A first course with a full-bodied flavour, made with a spaghetti-like (but thicker) durum wheat pasta served with a special sauce of onions and sardines. Once served at Christmas Eve dinner, today you can order it in any restaurant, at any time of the year.
Recommended for: lunch or dinner
Average cost: €10.00
Main ingredients: bigoli, sardines, onions
8 - Sarde in saor
Photo by fugzu. Sardine is a fish that boasts numerous interpretations in Venetian cuisine. Notable among these are sardines in saor, an essential component of a'serenissimo' appetiser. The fish is simply marinated in onion and vinegar, then flavoured with sultanas and pine nuts and fried and eaten hot, to best savour its sweet-and-sour aroma.
Recommended for: lunch or dinner (as an appetiser)
Average cost: €10.00
Main ingredients: sardines, vinegar, onions, sultanas
9 - Zaeti, Baicoli and Bussolai
In the Venetian confectionery tradition there are biscuits of all kinds.
Zaeti, or gialletti, are so called because of the unmistakable yellow colour given by theuse of corn flour in the dough. They are tasty, crumbly biscuits that are truly addictive!
Baicoli are very thin and dry traditional biscuits, made of few ingredients and easy to store. Perfect with zabaglione!
Another typical dry biscuit are the bussolai, typical of Burano, with a dough rich in eggs, sugar and flour and flavoured with aniseed or rum. They are typically S-shaped or round.
Recommended for: snack
Average cost: about €1.50
Main ingredients: flour, butter, egg, sugar
10 - Moeche, Masanete and Granseola
During spring and autumn, fishermen use their trezze, nets set in the shallow waters of the lagoon, to catch moeche, or lagoon crabs, which are in the moulting phase during the intermediate seasons and lose their shells, making them one of the locals' favourite foods!
The moeche are the male crabs, while the masanete are the females. These have a different moulting period (usually in the summer season) but are caught in the autumn because they are full of eggs, hence the name'masanete col coral'. They are usually boiled and seasoned with oil, salt, pepper and garlic. They are often accompanied by polenta, but the real traditional recipe calls for the moeche to be floured and fried! A crunchy and tasty bite that you absolutely must try!
The term crab comes from granso (crab) and seola (onion). It is a very large crab, as delicious as lobster! In Venetian cuisine it is simply blanched and seasoned with oil, lemon and parsley.
Recommended: lunch, dinner
Average cost: moeche €5.00/€7.00 per piece; spider crab €25.00
Main ingredients: moeche, flour and oil; granseola, oil, parsley and lemon
Where to eat in Venice: cheap restaurants, typical venues and street food
Venice is not only interesting from an artistic point of view, but, contrary to what you might think, it also has a varied and exquisite cuisine whose dishes range from'cicchetti', small variegated morsels made from any ingredient, to first and second courses.
The Rialto Market is a good place to eat if you are in a hurry and prefer street food and low prices, while the Cannaregio district (the former Jewish ghetto), with its wide range of taverns, inns and restaurants, is a great place to enjoy typical lunches and dinners away from the mass tourism that populates the San Marco district instead. Here are the best places to eat in Venice.
1 - Cantine del Vino già Schiavi (Al Bottegon)
Description: legendary bacaro where food and drinks are served standing up. Every day there are around 60 different cicchetti to choose from, at €1.20 each.
Specialities: cicchetti with pumpkin cream with ricotta, parmesan and julienne leeks, swordfish tartare with cocoa powder, smoked tuna with parmesan and julienne leek, pesto Genovese with mascarpone, ricotta and sun-dried tomatoes
Average price: €8.00 per person
Address: Fondamenta Nani 992, Dorsoduro - Get directions
2 - Ogio
Description: Low budget restaurant on the ground floor of a charming building that was once the Convento dei Crociferi, near the monumental Jesuit church
Description:
Speciality: tortelli alla ricotta and white asparagus risotto
Average price: €8.00 per person
Address: Campo dei Gesuiti, Cannaregio - Get directions
3 - Trattoria Alla Fontana
Description: wooden furnishings with exposed beams and outdoor tables, offers typical cuisine with homemade pasta
Speciality: stewed salt cod with polenta
Average price: from €35.00 per person
Address: Fondamenta Cannaregio, 1102 - Get directions
4 - Osteria Al Cicheto
Description: informal restaurant offering fixed and a la carte menus with typical dishes and local wines.
Speciality: Venetian style liver with figs
Average price: from €30.00 per person
Address: Calle de la Misericordia, 367/A - Get directions
5 - Oficina Ormesini Venice
Description: industrial décor, bar corner with cicchetti and gourmet Italian cuisine based on fresh fish
Speciality: polenta with sopressa and seasonal mushrooms
Average price: from €35.00 per person
Address: Cannaregio, 2689 - Get directions
6 - Restaurant Vecia Cavana
Description: rustic but elegant restaurant with a wide choice of wines and fish menu, all gluten-free
Speciality: swordfish with herbs
Average price: from €40.00 per person
Address: Tera Santi Apostoli street, 4624 - Get directions
7 - Very Good Bigoleria Gnoccheria
Description: informal restaurant focused on bigoli and gnocchi with street food proposals such as rustici and pizza
Speciality: bigoli in anchovy sauce alla venenziana
Average price: from €12.00 per person
Address: Fondamenta Cannaregio, 961 - Get directions
