Venice and Veneto are very popular around the world for its delicious cuisine. Venetian cuisine has in fact maintained its traditional taste for centuries. How can we go to Venice and not taste the palatable delights as the pasta "gnocchi di San Zeno", "radicchio trevigiano", the smocked ricotta cheese, the aphrodisiac "tiramisù"?

BEST DISHES FROM VENETO
First dishes
Bigoli with agole
Bigoli with duck
Farfalle merlot
Gnocchi of San Zeno
Bean soup
Potato soup
Pasta and beans
Riso alla trevigiana (with radicchio and cheese)
Risi and bisi
Risotto with frogs
Risotto with Peoci
Polenta and osèi

Being next to the Adriatic Sea, Venice's cuisine is based mostly on sea-food, but, polenta, rice, beans and vegetables are also typical dishes.
The codfish is probably the most representative dish of Venetian cuisine mosty served as Baccalà Mantecato which is cooked in olive oil, garlic, and parsley and then creamed in a blender.
As for Veneto, it’s mostly served with the polenta (thick corn mush), a delicate and very palatable crème that Venetians love to eat as first or second dish.

It is also very popular the codfish from Vicenza, cooked around two hours and possible to prepare in several different ways: someone loves to prepare codfish with milk, others with potatoes or vegetables.
The Polenta is a simple dish made of cornstarch, the suitable base for many delicious recipes. You can’t leave Veneto without tasting the so-called Polenta fasoà, prepared cooking the cornstarch with bean soup and enriched with lard of pork. Polenta is also very good if cut to pieces and deep–fried.

Very often Venetian dishes are related to special festivities:

– Gnocchi di San Zeno is a culinary tradition from Verona, going back to XVI century and connected to Carnival’s festivity. The present recipe is the traditional one, handed down by the citizens of San Zeno: potatoes, flour and eggs. Gnocchi are usually left to boil in the water and then served with melted butter and cheese. That’s enough for having a very delicious first dish!

– Sarde in Saor is the Venetian expression to indicate the dish made of anchovies and onions, typical maritime dish cooked mostly during the festivity of Redentore;

– The Castradina is a dish made of wether’s meat cooked in occasion of the festivity of Salute.

Second dishes
Duck with aromatic herbs
Brasato all’Amarone
Fegato alla Veneziana
Pork with milk
Baccalà alla vicentina
Patè di tonno
Bisato in tecia
Anguilla in tegame

Dessert
Bussolai veneziani
Castagnole
Fregolotta
Frittole veneziane
Golossei
Pandoro
Tiramisù

– The Golossei, prepared during the Carnival, is an old version of the popular lolly-pops: they consist in a series of candy sweets united with a stick, dusted with sugar, and then let air-cooled.

– The frittelle is another typical sweet of Carnival. It’s a kind of fried dough prepared with flour, eggs, sugar, salt, lemon, grated apple.

– In Christmas, it’s a tradition in Veneto (but today in all the country) to eat the Pandoro. A recipe very difficult to prepare, in fact most of the people prefer to buy it. It’s a tall and soft cake dusted with icing sugar.

– The Galani are very thin sweets made with flour, eggs, sugar, salt, butter and a little anisette.

– And what about the Tiramisù? Veneto and Tuscany have been fighting over the origin of this recipe, but many sources would confirm that it is from Venice. Original ingredients are mascarpone, eggs, savoiardi biscuits, coffee, Marsala and cacao.

WINE PRODUCTION
Even for wine production, Veneto isn't far behind in quality and taste as those from Tuscany or Piemonte. There are three classification: D.O.C.G., D.O.C., I.G.T wines.
D.O.C.G wines
Recioto di Soave and Renobilis.
D.O.C wines
Amarone, Bardolino, Bianco di Custoza, Rosso di Garda, Recioto di Valpolicella, Soave.
I.G.T. wines
Cabernet, Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Nero, Prosecco, Sauvignon, Alto Livenza, Colli Trevigiani, Conselvano delle Venezie, Delle Venezie, Veronese, Tocai italico, Veneto orientale.