VENICE GOURMET
VENICE GOURMET
“Venice gourmet“: would you like to take home the distinctive experience of Venetian cuisine?
Join our cooking class and taste the flavors of local fish, the scent of seasonal herbs, the freshness of the best Lagoon vegetables.
Learn how to prepare Venetian specialties with the help of a professional chef who will inform you about the ingredients and culinary processes.
Your cooking session takes place in a distinguished Venetian house, where you will enjoy a full meal in an authentic setting.
Prepare fragrant deep-fried zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella and basil as a starter, and continue with a homemade pasta with scampi and porcini mushrooms scampi for the first course.
The main course could be salt-crusted sea bass with artichoke rounds as the side dish. Finish up with a delightful dessert, and not necessarily a traditional Tiramisu!
On request, you can ask for a Rialto market tour before the class, where the chef will show you and describe seasonal products used for the seafood or meat dishes on your menu.
Get your senses ready, and contact us for your “Venice gourmet” experience.
Below is the recipe for “Baccalà mantecato,” a popular seafood dish, served in both wine bars and fine restaurants.
- Whipped Cod (makes abt 4 cups)
- 1 pound soaked boneless cod, known as “baccalà”
- 2 garlic cloves, finely minced
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cup poaching water
- Freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Salt
When the cod is sufficiently soaked, cut it into smaller pieces-6 inches or so and put them in a saucepan with at least an inch of water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover with the lid, and cook at a steady roiling boil for 20 minutes or longer, until the cod flakes easily. It should not break apart. Lift it out of the cooking water, and let it drain and cool in a colander. Save a cup of the cooking water. Set up the electric mixer or food processor and flake all the fish into the bowl. Beat with the paddle at low speed to break the fish up more; drop in the minced garlic, and beat at medium speed while you pour in half the olive oil very gradually in a thin stream. Continue beating at low speed as you slowly add the rest of the oil. Now increase the speed to medium. The whipped cod should be smooth and fluffy. If the fish is very dense, you may thin it with the cooking water. Finally, season with pepper and beat it in to blend. Instead of a hands-on cooking class, join “At home in Venice” tour for a tasty snack in a private house.Continue reading
HIGHLIGHTS
- Cooking class in a private apartment
- The assistance of a chef
- You eat what you make!
MORE ABOUT
THIS TOUR
Italian regional cuisine is celebrated all over the world not only for its incredible variety of food and wines but also for its endless creativity. You’ll be surprised by the many ways ordinary ingredients are handled and combined to obtain different tastes and textures.
As for the Veneto Region, Venice was always known for its seafood-oriented cuisine, especially the Eastern Mediterranean styles. Conversely, the mainland constantly supplied a good deal of much-appreciated delis, hard to find in the Lagoon.
The Venetians, thanks to their inquisitive nature, began to appreciate new tastes and flavors, for instance, the Moorish sweet and sour savor, unknown in the Roman age. They also soon learned the symbolic meaning of food.
Continue reading
Due to their rarity, exotic ingredients became symbols of social status, as for meat and big wild game or spiced food – peacocks, deer, wild boars -.
They were the choice of the elite, who needed a sign of distinction to improve the family’s reputation.
Centuries-old recipes partly changed without losing their identity and initial taste.
Fish and seafood are still the basics of our cuisine, possibly seasonal and freshly caught.
Venetian cuisine teems with sardines, shellfish, squid, cuttlefish, cod, shrimps, crabs, monkfish, and a variety of other sea creatures.
The mainland nearby and Sant’ Erasmo island in the Northern Lagoon provide excellent artichokes, green peas, asparagus, zucchini, eggplants, arugula, cherry tomatoes, large shallots, narrow cardoons, and some fruit like tiny pears, green or black figs, and yellow plums.
As Venice is entirely pedestrian, the locals need to shop for food more frequently than on the mainland, as they don’t like carrying too much weight!
The positive result is that they get accustomed to fresh produce, and buy what’s best at the daily markets.
Our full-immersion food experience will teach you to enhance the natural flavor of fresh produce, what’s best during the different seasons of the year, and stay healthy… without being on a diet!
DRESS CODE AND ADVICE
- No dress code required
COST
- Your culinary experience lasts four hours, lunch included, and costs 210 euros per person (minimum two persons, market tour on request only).
- A class operates with a maximum of 6 people.
- Please note that Rialto market is open from Mondays through Saturdays, but the fish section is closed on Mondays too.
CONTACT US
WALKS INSIDE ITALY
ART CITY WALKS aff. Network Giv
San Polo 1541 30125 VENICE, ITALY
C.F. e P. Iva 04331170276
Prot. 2016/16140 del 25-2-2016
Polizza Europ Assistance 8957877
