Region

Veneto

Veneto cooks with rice, maize and dried cod more than with pasta: risi e bisi, polenta, whipped baccalà, sweet-sour sardines. It changes completely between the Venetian lagoon, the radicchio-growing plain and the Dolomite valleys around Belluno.

Veneto runs from the Dolomites down to the Po delta, taking in the Prosecco hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene (a UNESCO site since 2019) plus Valpolicella, Soave, the irrigated plain and the lagoon. At that scale there cannot be a single cuisine, but one thread runs through all of it: the Republic of Venice traded spices for centuries, so pepper, cinnamon, cloves and raisins appear in savoury dishes far more often here than elsewhere in Italy.

The other Venetian legacy is stockfish. North Atlantic routes brought air-dried Norwegian cod to the city (tradition dates it to the shipwreck of Captain Piero Querini in the Lofoten islands in 1432) and Veneto has called it baccalà ever since, even though baccalà elsewhere means salt cod. Two dishes follow: Venetian baccalà mantecato, beaten with a thread of oil into a spreadable cream and served on grilled polenta, and baccalà alla vicentina, simmered for hours in milk, oil and onion, which has its own confraternity policing the recipe.

Venice cooks sweet-sour and preservation-minded: sarde in saor, fried sardines buried under vinegared onions with raisins and pine nuts, invented to keep fish edible on board ship; bigoli in an onion and anchovy sauce for meat-free days; calf's liver with onions; and the produce of the lagoon gardens, including baby artichokes from Sant'Erasmo and moeche, crabs caught only during the few weeks they moult. Out on the plain, rice takes over: Vialone Nano from Isola della Scala makes a looser, wavier risotto than the Lombard version, and risi e bisi was cooked for the doge on St Mark's day.

Each province then has an obsession. Treviso has late radicchio, which after frost is stood in spring water to blanch and then trimmed by hand, leaf by leaf, and it invented tiramisù. Bassano has white asparagus. Verona has gnocchi, horse-meat stew, rice, pandoro and the Valpolicella wines: Amarone is made from grapes dried on racks for three or four months before pressing. Belluno, in the mountains, brings beetroot-filled casunziei and Piave cheese; Vicenza adds its soft sopressa salami.

Veneto · VEN

VEN

Signature dishes

Risi e bisi (soupy rice with new peas)
Sarde in saor (sardines with vinegared onions, raisins, pine nuts)
Baccalà mantecato (whipped stockfish on polenta)
Baccalà alla vicentina (stockfish stewed in milk and onion)
Bigoli in salsa (thick pasta with onion and anchovy)
Pasta e fasioi (pasta and borlotti bean soup)
Pastissada de caval (Verona horse-meat stew)
Tiramisù (invented in Treviso)

Foods from here

DOPAmarone della ValpolicellaAmarone is made from Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella dried on racks for 100 to 120 days until they…DOPAsiagoAsiago DOP is a cow's milk cheese from the Veneto plateau and Trentino that exists in two very diffe…DOPBassano White AsparagusBassano white asparagus is white because it never sees daylight: the spear grows inside a ridge of s…Fish and seafoodBaccalàBaccalà is North Atlantic cod preserved in salt. It is not the same thing as stoccafisso, which is t…Vegetables and fruitFiolaro BroccoliFiolaro broccoli is not grown for its head but for the fioi, the side shoots that sprout along the s…IGPLamon BeansLamon beans are mountain-grown borlotti with a skin so thin it disappears in the mouth and flesh tha…Pasta and breadGnocchiGnocchi are small boiled dumplings, in their modern form made of potato bound with a little flour. T…DOPGrana PadanoGrana Padano DOP is a hard, cooked cow's milk cheese from the Po Valley, aged a minimum of nine mont…SweetsPandoroPandoro is Verona's Christmas cake: a tall eight-pointed star, at least 20% butter, no candied fruit…DOPProseccoProsecco is made from Glera grapes by the Martinotti tank method, not the traditional bottle method …DOPProvoloneProvolone is a stretched-curd cow's milk cheese from northern Italy, rope-tied and hung to age in sh…IGPTreviso RadicchioTreviso radicchio comes in two forms that are effectively different vegetables. The late one, tardiv…DOPSoppressa VicentinaSoppressa Vicentina is a large, coarse-grained Veneto salami made from heavy pigs born and raised in…Fish and seafoodStoccafissoStoccafisso is cod air-dried on wooden racks in the Norwegian Lofoten Islands, with no salt at all, …SweetsTiramisuTiramisu is an uncooked layered dessert: crisp savoiardi biscuits dipped in cold espresso, a cream o…

Cities

City guideVeronaVerona eats horse meat (braised as pastissada, dried into sfilacci) and boiled beef with pearà, a sa…City guideVeniceVenice eats standing up and in small doses: cicheti on the counter of a bacaro with a small glass of…

When to go

At Carnival, Verona holds its gnocchi festival and the whole region fries fritole and galani. April brings Bassano white asparagus, lagoon moeche (caught only during the short spring and autumn moults) and, on St Mark's day, risi e bisi with the first peas; Vinitaly, Italy's biggest wine fair, is also in Verona in April. September is harvest, and in Valpolicella the start of the three-to-four-month grape-drying that produces Amarone. October brings the chestnut festival at San Zeno. From December to February comes late Treviso radicchio, with local shows across the growing area: the best window to eat it grilled or in risotto.

Frequently asked

What food is Veneto famous for?

Whipped stockfish (baccalà mantecato), sweet-sour sardines, risotto and polenta, plus late radicchio from Treviso. The region also gave the world tiramisù and Prosecco. What it is not famous for is pasta: rice and maize have been the staples here for centuries.

What are cicchetti?

Cicchetti are Venice's bar snacks, eaten standing in a bacaro with a small glass of wine known as an ombra. Typical ones are crostini topped with whipped stockfish, sardines in saor, meatballs and baby octopus. Two or three bars in a row make a cheap and very local alternative to a sit-down dinner.

Why does Veneto eat rice and polenta rather than pasta?

Because both grew here. Rice has been cultivated on the irrigated Veronese plain since the fifteenth century, and Vialone Nano from Isola della Scala makes a looser, wavier risotto than the Lombard style. Maize arrived from the Americas in the sixteenth century and polenta became the daily staple, still served with stews, cheese and grilled fish.

Where was tiramisù invented?

Treviso, at a restaurant called Le Beccherie, in the 1970s, according to the version most widely accepted and defended by the town. Friuli Venezia Giulia disputes it and claims an earlier origin in Tolmezzo. The original recipe is simply savoiardi biscuits, coffee, egg, sugar, mascarpone and cocoa, with no cream and no alcohol.

What wine is Veneto known for?

Prosecco, Amarone and Soave. The quality tier of Prosecco is Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG, whose steep hills became a UNESCO site in 2019. Amarone della Valpolicella is made from grapes dried on racks for three or four months before pressing, which is why it is high in alcohol and expensive. Veneto produces more appellation wine than any other Italian region.