The area that welcomes the Hotel Antica Corte Marchesini is rich in natural, historical and culinary treasures. Today we will talk about the latter, because visiting a city also means immersing yourself in its traditional recipes.
If you visited Venice, city of love, and the territory that surrounds it, you know what delicacies it hides. Venetian cuisine and, in particular, Venetian cuisine, is the result of a mixture of different cultures with which the Serenissima Republic has come into contact during its centuries-old history.
From meat to fresh fish, from typical “bacari” to street food, from kosher Venetian cuisine to the most typical restaurants, today we will show you two of the most famous summer dishes!
After knowing them through words, your only desire will be to delight your palate with the scents and flavors of the area at our Restaurant Pizzeria Ai Quattro Archi.
“Risi e Bisi”, a mouth-watering first dish!
It is a poor dish of peasant cuisine that was sometimes enriched with bacon and onion. Halfway between risotto and soup for its soft texture, on the wave, it has an interesting story behind it. When trade relations between Venice and Vicenza intensified, agricultural products circulated throughout the territory. Peas grown on the slopes of the Berici Hills also reached the lagoon city.
Since spring is the season in which the first peas are harvested, “Risi e Bisi” became the celebratory dish of the season of flowers. According to history, this typical dish was offered to the Doge in the room dedicated to the banquets of the Doge’s Palace on the occasion of the celebrations of the patron Saint Mark. It was a sort of symbolic gesture with which the spring and summer season was inaugurated.
Soft and creamy “Baccalà mantecato”
Simple and delicious, Baccalà mantecato is a famous traditional dish with a distant past. The baccalà – Venetian name for stockfish – is made in many different ways, but the creamed one remains one of the best. According to the original recipe it is seasoned with oil, salt, pepper, garlic and lemon and served with hot croutons or grilled polenta.
This delicacy, as essential as it is good, dates back precisely to 1432, off the Lofoten Archipelago, beyond the Arctic Circle. While Piero Querini sailed with his sixty-eight sailors, a dangerous storm broke out. After leaving the boat he took refuge on the island of Rost, while in the distance the ship sank with all its cargo. At the place where he arrived, he noticed that the inhabitants were feeding with a dried fish in the wind and in the sun, then beaten with a wooden oar. The meat, in fact, losing about 70% of its weight, becomes very hard because it completely dehydrates.
Intrigued and fascinated by this fish unknown to him, Piero Querini left for Venice with a load of stokvis (stockfish in Dutch).
More than a century later, the Council of Trent of 1563 sanctioned the obligation of abstinence from meat for two hundred days. Alternatively, it was indicated to consume just the stockfish! It is in this period that the Nordic cod is consecrated a dish of Italian cuisine by Bartolomeo Scappi, cook of Pius V.
The tasty delicacies of the Ai Quattro Archi Restaurant
Now that you know two local recipes of the tradition, how about coming to try them at our Restaurant Ai Quattro Archi? You will find delicious meat and fish dishes, pizzas of all kinds and rich salads refreshing for the hottest days.
Our philosophy leads us to choose only fresh and genuine products to recover the traditional recipes and merge them with a hint of innovation!
Come and visit us at the Hotel Antica Corte Marchesini: we are waiting for you at the table!
