Cicchetti Veneziani
Venice traditional small plates, the Venetian equivalent of Spanish tapas. These bite-sized delights range from topped crostini to marinated seafood, enjoyed standing at bacaro counters with local wine.
- 8 ozSalt cod (baccalà)(soaked and desalted)
- 1 cupExtra-virgin olive oil
- 1 cloveGarlic
- 8Fresh sardines(cleaned)
- 1/2 cupWhite wine vinegar
- 2 largeOnions(thinly sliced)
- 2 tbspPine nuts
- 2 tbspRaisins
- 12Crusty bread rounds
Sarde in saor keeps 5 days refrigerated. Baccalà mantecato keeps 3 days.
- 1For baccalà mantecato: simmer cod until tender, drain and flake
- 2Beat cod with olive oil and garlic until creamy and spreadable
- 3For sarde in saor: flour and fry sardines until golden
- 4Sauté onions until soft, add vinegar, pine nuts, raisins
- 5Layer sardines with onion mixture, marinate overnight
- 6Serve baccalà on crostini, sardines at room temperature
Baccalà needs 2-3 days soaking with water changes. Sarde in saor improves after 24 hours.
Cicchetti (singular cicchetto) are the small savory bites that define Venetian bacaro culture — the tradition of informal wine bars that has shaped the social life of Venice for centuries. The word may derive from the Latin ciccus, meaning a small quantity, or from the Venetian dialect. Bacari — dark, intimate Venetian wine bars — served cheap local wines (ombra, meaning "shadow," a term said to come from the practice of moving a cart of wine glasses to follow the shade of St. Mark's Campanile) alongside small plates since at least the medieval period. Cicchetti are not merely food: they encode the social ritual of the ombra — the small glass of wine consumed standing at the bar between morning and lunch, or in the early evening — and the principle that food in Venice is best eaten quickly, simply, and communally. Classic preparations include baccalà mantecato (whipped salt cod on white polenta), sarde in saor (sardines with sweet-and-sour onions, pine nuts, and raisins — a preparation documented in Venetian cooking since the 14th century), polpette (small meatballs), and crostini with various toppings. The sweet-sour preparation of sarde in saor reflects the Arab spice-trade influence on medieval Venetian cooking through the Republic of Venice's position as the dominant Eastern Mediterranean trading power from the 13th to 16th centuries.