Recipes
The food of Venice is as much about fresh fruit as it is about fish. Peaches, pears, sweet cherries, figs, grapes, and melons perfume the market. Some simple poached fruit with cookies is all it takes for dessert. “We think Americans mostly like cake, but when we serve a fruit […]
“This is my invention.” Francesco says he was inspired one day when he heard a chef talking about an olive dressing. The addition of walnuts helps mellow the intensity of the olives. A more typically Venetian rendition would require green olives, but Kalamata olives with their lovely mellow flavor, are […]
It takes a good nonstick skillet – hardly a traditional Venetian utensil – to make a crisp, delicate shell of parmesan cheese. The shell can be filled with arugula salad, grilled or sautéed mushrooms, or even risotto. “It’s sometimes crazy the things chefs think up, but that’s what makes our […]
“Green sauces are used more in the region around Modena than in Venice, but I like the way they can contrast a rich terrine. This sauce is also good with simply boiled or grilled seafood.” Francesco’s green sauce is deliciously piquant, an excellent contrast for steamed vegetables or sausages. Green […]
In describing Renaissance dinners in Venice, visitors marveled at the table settings – glassware and forks, items unheard of in other cities – and the luxury of the repasts. Among the dishes preceding the meat were boutarghe (mullet roe), alici (whitebait), capperi (capers), olive (olives), and caviale (caviar), along with […]
“I learned this recipe from my friends at Ristorante Celeste in Treviso,” Francesco says. “It’s so beautiful.” Marinating the radicchio removes some of the bitterness from the vegetable and also intensifies the color. In Treviso they serve it with salami, but Francesco prefers it with prosciutto or octopus. Marinated Radicchio […]
Old-fashioned bread pudding, a way of using leftover bread, is as typical of Venice as it is of the other frugal regions of Italy, the rest of Europe, and America. But adding some polenta to the bread dough used for the basis of the pudding gives it a distinctive character, […]
Tarragon, an herb popular in France, is of Arab origin and was introduced to the European table by Crusaders stopping in Venice on their return from Jerusalem. It provides the aromatic grace note for the beef carpaccio with its peppery edge. The dressing calls for a raw egg yolk. It […]
With fresh, flavorful ingredients, the simplest preparations, like this one for stewed zucchini, become irresistibly delectable. Francesco prepared an enormous quantity of this dish for a big outdoor buffet at his cousin’s house in Mestre. It was a perfect foil for grilled squid and smoky chunks of grilled baby monkfish […]
Recipe for rosemary biscuits