A board of soft white polenta beside fried sardines under golden onions, raisins and pine nuts, a bowl of loose rice and peas, and thick spaghetti in a pale onion and anchovy sauce

Venice and the Veneto in the Pantry: How to Cook from the Jars

September 30, 2026

Venetian cooking starts from food that keeps. Stockfish, cod dried in the Arctic wind, came home to the Veneto with a shipwrecked merchant in 1432. Rice from the lowlands south of Verona, by the European Commission's account, was at first sold almost entirely on the Rialto market. Sardines are fried and laid under onions and vinegar. On April 1, 2025, the Veneto region approved an official list of its traditional foods; the July 2026 update runs to 413 entries, from Spritz to Sarde in saor. Seven pantry foods lie behind twelve of those entries: cornmeal for polenta, Vialone Nano rice, stockfish, salted sardines and anchovies, egg pasta, black pepper, and the sweet breads and biscuits of Verona and Venice. The table sets the seven side by side with the listed dishes each one makes, and the three dishes at the end use several at once.

The seven, in one table

Food	Where it comes from	What defines it	Listed dishes it makes	First dish to make
Cornmeal for polenta	Across the region; white Biancoperla corn in the provinces of Treviso, Padua, Rovigo and Venice	Yellow Marano corn and white Biancoperla, with large pearly kernels, the polenta of the plains	Farina di mais Marano, Farina di mais biancoperla, Fegato alla veneziana	Soft polenta
Vialone Nano rice, Riso Nano Vialone Veronese IGP	24 communes in the province of Verona	One japonica variety, grown in Verona since 1945; no more than 3 percent imperfect grains; under 14 percent moisture	Risi e bisi	Risi e bisi
Stockfish, Vicenza's "bacalà"	The Lofoten islands of Norway	Cod dried naturally in the northern wind	Bacalà alla vicentina, Baccalà mantecato alla veneziana	Bacalà alla vicentina, with polenta
Salted sardines and anchovies	Preserved fish, in salt or oil	Cooked into onions in oil	Bigoli in salsa, Bacalà alla vicentina	Thick spaghetti with onions and anchovies
Egg pasta	Bigoli across the region; tagliolini from the Cipriani family of Harry's Bar	Bigoli: rough, thick spaghetti with a hole. Cipriani: seven eggs per kilo of semolina	Bigoi, Bigoli in salsa	Tagliolini with butter
Black pepper	Imported; Venetian merchants once distributed it across Europe	The heat in Verona's bread and broth sauce	Pearà	Pearà with boiled meat
Pandoro and biscuits	Verona; Venice	Pandoro: a conical cake shaped like an eight-pointed star; zaletti made with cornmeal	Pandoro di Verona, Biscotti baicoli, Zaletti	Pandoro with a sweet wine

Polenta: the dish above all

Italia.it, Italy's national tourism site, calls polenta the Veneto's "iconic dish, which can be eaten alone or with meat, liver and cod stews." The Slow Food Foundation, which runs a presidium for the region's old white corn, says Veneto's gastronomic history "is closely tied to a single dish, polenta, commonly prepared with Marano corn." Until the end of the Second World War, white polenta made from Biancoperla corn was also common. The foundation says white polenta was the polenta of the plains and hills, and yellow that of the mountains.

Biancoperla kernels are large and pearly white. In 1950 the variety still covered more than 50,000 hectares, before higher-yielding hybrids replaced it. The fine white polenta, also called polenta di Treviso, goes with the humble fish of the rivers and lagoon, and with baccalà. The Venice city council's own inventory of local dishes serves fegato alla veneziana, liver cooked with onions, on white polenta.

Coarse yellow cornmeal is the other main style. One miller of it is in Lombardy: Aristide Moretti took over a mill at Campagnola, in the province of Bergamo, in 1922 and made bramata for polenta there, according to Il Sole 24 Ore. Bergamo's chamber of commerce defines bramata as coarsely ground maize, stone-milled where possible and never too fine, and says the polenta it makes is deep yellow and needs at least 50 minutes on the stove (shop Moretti bramata polenta). The Moretti producer guide covers the mill, the polenta guide compares the grinds, and the polenta recipe guide gives the method.

Corn also goes into Veneto pasta. Molino di Ferro, in Vedelago in the province of Treviso, traces itself to Giuseppe Marconato, who ground cornmeal on an old stone mill on the Brentelle river from corn grown in the Veneto countryside. At the end of the 1990s the mill made its first corn pasta. Its Le Veneziane pasta today is made from 100 percent Italian corn (shop Le Veneziane corn spaghetti).

Vialone Nano: rice for the Rialto

By the European Commission's account, families from Lombardy brought rice growing to the Verona lowlands early in the sixteenth century, Veronese rice was at first sold almost entirely on the Rialto market, and its fame spread through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The variety itself is modern. According to the Unioncamere Veneto product sheet, Italy's rice research station at Vercelli bred it by crossing Nano with Vialone; it has been grown since 1937 and reached Verona in 1945. The Commission says that in 1996 it became the first rice in Europe with a protected geographical indication.

The IGP covers 24 communes in the province of Verona. The fields are flooded with spring water, the rice must be packed under 14 percent moisture, and no more than 3 percent of the grains may be imperfect. The sheet says the grain stays compact and gives its best in minestrone, timballi, rice salads and risotto. Italia.it names risi e bisi, rice and peas, as a dish of Vialone Nano, and says Verona makes risotto all'Amarone with it. The risotto rice guide compares the varieties, and the risotto alla milanese recipe covers the stirred method.

Stockfish: Vicenza's bacalà

In Vicenza, "bacalà" means stockfish, cod dried naturally in the northern wind. The Venerabile Confraternita del Bacalà alla Vicentina and the Lofoten islands' own tourism board tell the same origin story: Pietro Querini, a Venetian merchant, was shipwrecked off the island of Røst in the Lofoten archipelago and brought stockfish back to the Veneto in 1432.

The confraternity's recipe is exact. For twelve people: 1 kilo of dried stockfish, 250 to 300 grams of onions, half a liter of extra virgin olive oil, three salted sardines, half a liter of fresh milk, 50 grams of grated Grana, a little flour. The fish soaks in cold water for two to three days, the water changed every four hours, which comes to 12 to 18 changes and about 83 grams of dried fish per person. The ingredient list gives the oil and the milk in equal volume, half a liter each, though the method adds oil until the fish is covered. It cooks on very low heat for about four and a half hours, never stirred, is served with polenta, and by the confraternity's account is excellent after resting 12 to 24 hours. In Venice the same fish is beaten into baccalà mantecato, which Italia.it lists with polenta.

Onions and preserved fish: the Venetian base

Set sarde in saor, bigoli in salsa and bacalà alla vicentina side by side and the same base appears in each. Sarde in saor, by Italia.it's description, is fried sardines with caramelized onions, pine nuts and sultanas; the city council's inventory calls it sardines in a sauce of onions and vinegar. The same inventory describes bigoi in salsa as bigoli, the local egg pasta, with a sardine sauce. Italia.it says Verona dresses its bigoli with sardines and pours a Bianco di Custoza to tone down the sauce's pungent intensity. The confraternity's bacalà starts with onions and salted sardines. Onions cooked slowly, then soured with vinegar or salted with fish: everything in saor except the sardines keeps in a cupboard.

A tin of anchovies in olive oil stands in for salted sardines in the onion base (shop Les Mouettes d'Arvor anchovies). The anchovies guide compares salted and oil-packed fish, and the anchovy recipe guide starts with the simplest uses.

Egg pasta: bigoli and the Harry's Bar tagliolini

Bigoi are on the region's list in their own right. Italia.it describes bigoli as rough spaghetti with a hole, named from the dialect word for caterpillar. A thin egg pasta comes from the Cipriani family, behind Harry's Bar in Venice. Giuseppe Cipriani opened Harry's Bar in Venice on May 13, 1931; the family says Italy's Ministry of Cultural Affairs declared it a national landmark in 2001, and that Cipriani created the Bellini there in 1948. Cipriani Food says its egg pasta uses seven eggs for every kilo of semolina, that the sheet is worked more than 80 times in a machine designed by Arrigo Cipriani, and that it is dried slowly at low temperature (shop Cipriani egg tagliolini). Toss it with butter and Parmigiano. The Italian pantry pasta guide places egg pasta among the dried shapes.

Pepper and pearà

In the Middle Ages, Venetian and Genoese merchants became Europe's main distributors of pepper, and the guide to how pepper built Venice covers that trade. Verona still cooks with it. Italia.it describes pearà as a thick, spicy sauce of meat broth, stale bread, beef marrow and abundant black pepper, served with mixed boiled meats, and pearà is on the region's list (shop Zanzibar black peppercorns). The black pepper guide covers grinding and keeping it.

Pandoro, biscuits and the spritz

Italia.it calls pandoro "a child of Verona," invented at the end of the nineteenth century, a cake shaped like an eight-pointed star, served with a sweet Recioto di Soave. Pandoro di Verona is on the region's list, beside Venice's baicoli and zaletti; the city council describes zaletti as yellow biscuits made with cornmeal. Loison, outside Vicenza, makes pandoro. Tranquillo Loison bought a small bakery at Motta, in Costabissara, in 1938, and his son Alessandro began making pandoro and panettone in 1955. Its Dolci Pensieri biscuits include a lemon biscotto (shop Loison lemon biscotto). The biscotti and butter cookies guide covers the styles. Spritz is on the list too, under drinks, and the spritz bar guide sets one up at home.

Three dishes that use three or four at once

Thick spaghetti with slow onions and anchovies. Made in the manner of bigoli in salsa. For four: slice three large white onions thin and cook them in six tablespoons of olive oil with a splash of water, covered, on low heat for about 30 minutes, until soft enough to fall apart without browning. Add eight anchovy fillets and stir until they melt. Cook 400 grams of bigoli, thick spaghetti or bucatini, keep a cup of the water, and toss the pasta in the onions with enough water to make a glossy sauce. Finish with black pepper and parsley. The guide to cooking dried pasta properly explains why the starchy water matters.

Risi e bisi. Italia.it says the dish was served to the Doges on April 25, the feast of Saint Mark. For four: cook 50 grams of diced pancetta and a small chopped onion in butter, add 300 grams of Vialone Nano and stir for a minute, then add 1.5 liters of hot broth a ladle at a time with 400 grams of peas, fresh or frozen. Stop while the pot is still loose enough to eat with a spoon, and stir in butter, grated Parmigiano and parsley.

Polenta with pearà. Cook bramata at a ratio of about four parts salted water to one of cornmeal, stirring often, for at least 50 minutes. Meanwhile, melt 60 grams of beef marrow or butter in a heavy pan, stir in 200 grams of fine stale breadcrumbs, and add a liter of hot beef broth a little at a time. Cook on the lowest heat, stirring now and then, for about two hours, until thick and smooth, then grind in a generous teaspoon of black pepper and taste for more. Serve both beside sliced boiled beef or chicken. Leftover polenta, cooled and grilled, carries saor onions the next day.

The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver. Products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com. The Emilia-Romagna regional guide covers the region just to the south.