Home to both the masques and mystery of Venice and the star-crossed lovers of Verona, Veneto has captured the imagination of artists and romantics for centuries. This region is flanked on one side by the Dolomites and on the other by the Adriatic. The result is a territory whose cuisine is shaped by a history of both farming and fishing. It is also one of the few Italian regions where polenta rather than pasta is a staple.
This month’s primo is said to originate in Originally from Cortina d’Ampezzo, a town of the North-Eastern Dolomites where farmers combined beetroot-filled pasta with poppy seeds, butter and Parmigiano to create a vibrant and warming dish with interesting contrasting textures between the softness of the pasta and the crunchy poppy seeds.
The secondo, Baccalà alla Vicentina con Polenta, showcases polenta as well as salted Cod. This dish dates back from 1432 when Querina, a merchant ship captained by Venetian aristocrat Pietro Querini was shipwrecked off the coast of Norway. In search of food, the crew met a group of local women hanging their salted Cod to dry and learnt the technique. They brought the skill home to Veneto with them where inlanders who abstained from meat for religious reasons but could not afford fresh fish found the dried alternative a perfect substitute.
Try these dishes for yourself at Terroni locations this month.
My parents moved from Calabria because there was nothing there. My mom family moved here when she was 12. My father was the first of his family that moved here.
Amaro Lucano is a herbal liqueur infused with the essence of more than 30 herbs. A product of Basilicata, it has been a staple in the houses of expat Italians for the past 125 years.
Dubbed the ‘diamond of the culinary world’ for their value both in terms of money and flavour, truffles have always been popular with both diners and chefs.
Every meal needs to end with a bit of sweetness. Affogato alla Crema features crema gelato which is then ‘drowned’ in hot espresso for a pick-me-up at the end of your meal.
Aperitivo comes from the Latin word aperire, literally “to open,” and in Italian you still describe the effect of something appetizing as something that “opens your stomach.”
Sustainability is an environmental concept that focuses on finding an ecological way to meet the needs of the global population without compromising the world for future generations.
