Cook like a local Venice

From sweet-sour and spiced sardines to deep-fried polpette, experience the varied cuisine of this historic Italian city

- EMIKO DAVIES

The cuisine of Venice is utterly unique in the Italian peninsula. Refined, yet simple, it has origins that carry the legacy of the Venetian Republic's immense wealth and multicultural influence. Foreign ingredients such as sugar from Syria and Egypt, dried fruit, citrus and fried sweets from Persia, spices from India and Indonesia, then later, Norwegian stockfish, corn from Central America, and coffee from Turkey, all became part of Venice's indispensable pantry, influenced by the wealthy merchants importing sugar and spices. Yet at the same time, the cuisine heavily relies on the fresh and excellent yet basic ingredients that the lagoon environment and surrounding countryside offer each season, from soft shell crabs (known as moeche) and tiny grey prawns (schie) collected by fishermen to the delicate artichokes grown on the nearby islands and pruned early from the plant while still small (castraure).

Cicchetti are a way of life in Venice. Served in bàcari, Cicchetti are small morsels, generally small enough to be eaten in one or two bites. You can hold them with one hand while the other holds a spritz, the classic, jewel-toned aperitif of Venice. Eating Cicchetti, perhaps leaning on a stone counter or perched by the bridge of a canal, and hopping from one bácaro to the next for a bite before wandering home, has long been an economical way to socialise and is so suited to the casual Venetian way of life, which is largely on foot.

Polpette di Carne (fried meatballs)