Building a cuisine
In landlocked provinces outside of Venice, it can be hard to distinguish maps from menus. Road signs point to places whose names seem to be lifted from the aisles of a gourmet grocery store: Asiago, Grappa, Soave. Besides these specialties, the Veneto's staple ingredients sound suspiciously Central American: corn, rice and beans. Corn is the most common, and you can count on its appearance at most meals in the form of polenta. Yellow and white corn are used to make this simple dish, which is either doused with butter and served creamy and soft, or crisped by baking or frying. Long, straight country roads pass countless miles of cornfields in the heart of the region, a testament to the centrality of this simple food. Once the staple for the poor inland population, polenta has now taken on the cache of a tried and true regional favorite, and it is de rigeur beside meat stews, game and fish dishes such as baccalà mantecato.
The second main staple is rice, most commonly stirred into thousands of different risottos. Every possible ingredient has been incorporated into the collection, from backyard crops (squash, tomato, even lettuce) to fish and seafood (the slightly spicy, black squid-ink risotto is a signature dish) and every variety of bird and game. The more elaborate rice dishes are served as an entire meal, not just a first course.
Beans and peas make up the third platform of the region's edible staples. Cranberry beans (borlotti) and thin-skinned lamon are often used fresh out of the shell. The local version of pasta e fagioli, called pasta e fasoi by Venetians, is credited with bringing pasta into the regional diet. The ultimate mixture of indigenous ingredients is risi e bisi (rice with peas), a simple risotto made with fresh peas, broth, a splash of white wine, Parmigiano and butter. It's strange to think of a vegetable as having a homeland, but in the case of radicchio, its origins are clear. The bitter, red-leafed variety of chicory has its roots firmly planted in Veneto soil. Different varieties take their names from different towns: radicchio di Verona (with a round head of violet leaves), di Treviso (elongated), di Chioggia (round, striped with white) and di Castelfranco Veneto (rose-shaped). The thick, cabbage-like leaves of radicchio are tossed in salads or grilled as a side dish.

Clams, crabs and canocchie
Anywhere there's water in the Veneto, fish and seafood step up as the leading players in local dishes. The Adriatic Sea provides innumerable varieties of fish and two distinctive types of lobster-astice, similar to lobsters caught off domestic shores, and the more delicately flavored aragosta. The calm, shallow waters of the Venetian Lagoon are a dependable source of unique crustaceans and shellfish (including soft-shell crabs in season); cuttlefish that are eaten as small as an inch long; mussels, snails and canocchie (razor clams). Don't expect to understand a local fish menu; Venetians have created their own words for many of the Lagoon's edible creatures that have nothing to do with their standard Italian names.Venice's world dominance brought it in contact with a much wider spectrum of ingredients than were otherwise available in Italy. Spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon and black pepper entered into the Veneto's diet through trade, as well as the classic Mediterranean combination of raisins and pine nuts. Many Venetian desserts are linked to holidays, though the classic cookie, baicolo, is served in any season, often with frozen zabaglione. Tiramisù is also one of Venice's gifts to the world.
For a taste of the region's best flavors, try some of the following recipes.

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