Venetian cuisine


Venetian cuisine, from the city of Venice, Italy
or more widely from the region of Veneto, has a centuries-long history and differs significantly from other cuisines of northern Italy, of neighbouring Austria and of Slavic countries, despite sharing some commonalities.
, where some noblemen and noblewomen enjoy merenda, or a mid-afternoon snack, eating bussoli, or typical sweets from Vicenza.

Overview

Cuisine in Veneto may be divided into three main categories, based on geography: the coastal areas, the plains, and the mountains. Each one can have many local cuisines, each city with its own dishes.
The most common dish is polenta, which is cooked in various ways within the local cuisines of Veneto. Polenta once was the universal staple food of the poorer classes, who could afford little else. In Veneto, the corns are ground in much smaller fragments in comparison with the rest of Italy: so, when cooked, it resembles a pudding.
Typical of many coastal areas, communities along the coast of the Laguna Veneta serve mainly seafood dishes.
In the plains it is very popular to serve grilled meat together with grilled polenta, potatoes or vegetables. Other popular dishes include risotto, rice cooked with many different kinds of food, from vegetables, mushrooms, pumpkin or radicchio to seafood, pork meat or chicken livers. Bigoli, fettuccine, ravioli and the similar tortelli and gnocchi, are fresh and often hand-made pasta dishes, served together with meat sauce often made with duck meat, sometimes together with mushrooms or peas, or simply with melted butter.
Cuisine from the mountain areas is mainly made of pork or game meat, with polenta, as well as mushrooms or cheeses, and some dish from Austrian or Tyrolese tradition, such as canederli or strudel. A typical dish is casunziei, hand-made fresh pasta similar to ravioli.
Among the typical seasoning of Venetian cuisine, you can find butter, olive oil, sunflower oil, vinegar, kren, senape, mostarda, salsa verde.
The following are dishes typical of the three subregions of the Veneto. The page for Venetian language provides additional information on writing and pronouncing the dishes' names.

Venice and the lagoon

Among the many Venetian desserts, the most well-known are:
, along with Venice, has one of the most distinctive cuisines in the Veneto. Previously, the Vicentians were often referred to as the magnagati or mangiagatti due to the alleged presence of cats in their cuisine, though the cooking of cats is now illegal in Italy. Typical plates of the city and the surrounding area include: