Your essential food guide to Veneto

• The must-make recipe from Veneto
• What are the traditional ingredients in Veneto?
• What are the famous dishes from Veneto?
• The best cheeses to try from Veneto
• The best wines to try from Veneto
• The delicious. team’s top food experiences in Veneto

Get to know the food of Veneto

Venice is probably the most popular reason people visit this northern region of the country, but Lake Garda, Verona and Vicenza draw their fair share of tourists too. Outside these beautiful cities, the countryside of Veneto is stunningly dramatic, boasting Dolomite mountains, rolling hills, verdant valleys, lagoons and an abundant coastline. Meat, fish, vegetables, grains, pulses – they’re all on the menu here, with the region’s famous dessert tiramisu to finish and a prosecco or Venetian spritz on the side.

In Venice itself the food scene is based around cicchetti – small tapas-style plates served at the bar – but wherever you are in the area you’ll not be far from something very good to eat. This is a particularly fertile part of the country, with rice, vegetables and grapevines thriving in the soil and climate.

Being such a cultural and historical hub, Venice naturally has its own distinct food scene – cicchetti (small tapas-style plates) are a particularly popular way of eating, and the constant throngs of tourists mean you’re spoilt for places to eat (although quality does vary!). Veneto as a whole, however, offers one of the most balanced regional cuisines in all of Italy thanks to its geography, its history as an important international trade hub and, of course, its centuries of tradition and artisanal expertise.

Our hero recipe from Veneto

Bigoli in salsa (caramelised onion and anchovy pasta) by chef Joseph Denison Carey

“I first encountered this dish whilst working in a Venetian kitchen in the small town of Oderzo, as part of my time at culinary school, and one afternoon for staff meal I noticed a large tray full of thick pasta with what seemed to be just caramelised onions. I asked one of the other chefs what it was (I’d never seen anything like it before) and she explained that bigoli in salsa is a classic Venetian dish containing basically only onions and anchovies. I filled my plate, and since that moment it has been one of my favourite and also simplest pasta dishes I know how to make,” says Joseph.

Born and raised in north London, Joseph undertook his chef training in Italy, spending time with the team at the Michelin-starred Ristorante Gellius, before returning to his roots where he began working at The Water House Project and Pidgin in London. In 2018 he started The Bread+Butter Supper Club alongside his friends Henry and Noah, as a way of bringing people together. He’s also a regular chef on ITV’s This Morning.

Cook Joseph’s bigoli in salsa (caramelised onion and anchovy pasta)

What are the traditional ingredients in Veneto?

• Rice While Lombardy produces the most amount of rice, Veneto – specifically the fertile plains around the city of Verona – produces some of the best. Vialone nano is a specific variety from the area which is generally regarded as better than carnaroli and arborio as it combines high starch with an ability to absorb liquid and keep its firmness.
• Fish and seafood Veneto’s coast offers up all the usual delights, with anchovies a particular focus. Perhaps surprisingly, dried cod (baccalà) and salt cod (stoccofisso) are hugely popular, despite being imported from Scandinavia these days. Closer to home, one real delicacy is moeche – a type of soft-shell crab taken from the Venetian canals in spring and autumn.
• Polenta Along with rice, polenta is an important staple in Veneto. It’s served like mashed potato with meat stews or fish or set into blocks and grilled, ready to be topped like crostini. Polenta from Veneto is often white rather than yellow, making the most of the local biancoperla variety of maize which is grown around Vicenza.
• Aperol This beloved bittersweet liqueur was invented in Padua in 1919 and shot to fame in the 1970s when the Aperol spritz was born (Aperol mixed with prosecco – a Venetian sparkling wine – and soda water). ‘Spritz culture’ has been a huge part of Veneto’s food scene ever since, with aperitivo hour an important part of the day.

What are the famous dishes from Veneto?

• Chicchetti Venice’s answer to tapas, these small bar snacks range from something as simple as a dish of olives to crostini, fish dishes or polpette (meatballs) in sauce. Served in bacari (bars), they’re something you always eat while sipping on an ombra (a small 100ml measure of wine) or a spritz.
• Carpaccio Another culinary stalwart of the City of Bridges, carpaccio’s invention can be traced right back to 1963, where Giuseppe Cipriani first prepared it in his famous restaurant Harry’s Bar (also famous for inventing the bellini cocktail). It’s a plate of very finely sliced raw beef dressed with olive oil, lemon and parmesan – although countless variations exist today. It’s named after the Venetian artist Vittore Carpaccio, who was known for his bold use of reds and whites in his paintings (which mirror the raw beef).
• Bigoli in salsa Veneto’s carbs of choice tend to be rice or polenta, but bigoli is the exception to the rule. It’s like spaghetti but much thicker, often produced with wholewheat and sometimes contains grooves to help catch the sauce. The most common way to serve it is ‘in salsa’ – a deeply umami mix of caramelised onions, oil and anchovy fillets.
• Sarde in saor Sardines and caramelised onions are a popular combo in Veneto. This iconic dish combines fresh fried anchovies with sticky onions, raisins, pine nuts and plenty of vinegar. Left to marinate and served at room temperature, it’s a delightful mix of sweet, sour and salty.
• Risi e bisi You’ll find risottos of all kinds across Veneto, but this simple rice dish is one of the most famous from the region. Peas and the local vialone nano rice are cooked like a risotto but with more liquid, resulting in something that’s looser than the well-known rice dish. Naturally, it’s a very popular thing to eat when the local pea season begins in spring.
• Tiramisu The origins of Italy’s most famous dessert have been hotly contested between Veneto and its neighbour Friuli-Venezia Giulia in recent years, but it’s generally accepted that it probably came from the city of Treviso in the late 1960s. The layered mix of mascarpone cream, sponge fingers soaked in espresso and sweet marsala wine and cocoa powder may be a relatively recent invention, but it only took a few years to gain international success.

The best cheeses to try from Veneto

Asiago is a mountain cheese made all over the world, but asiago DOP is the best example. It’s produced in neighbouring Trentino Alto-Adige to the north too, but the creameries around Vicenza are where the majority comes from. It’s sweet, nutty, firm and becomes crumblier and sharper the more it ages.

The best wines to try from Veneto

You can’t write about Veneto’s wine without starting with prosecco – the sparkling wine that’s become more popular than France’s champagne and Spain’s cava combined. But the region is a huge wine producer with so much more to offer. Fruity valpolicella and intense amarone are the most famous reds, while soave is the white of note.

Browse wine editor Susy Atkins’ pick of the nine best Italian wines to buy right now.

The delicious. team’s top food experiences in Veneto

Tom Shingler, Head of food
“Eating my first red prawn in a Venetian piazza as the sun gently set, proving there is great food to be had in Venice if you stay off the main tourist routes. The restaurant is closed now, but this was where my love affair with all things Italian truly began.”

Laura Rowe, Editorial director
“I recommend visiting Cortina in the summer to mountain bike… and for sundowner Aperol spritzes, spinach and speck spätzel, mountain carbonara with super-soft soft-boiled eggs, bursting balls of burrata…”

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