While staying at the beautiful eighteenth-century Locanda degli Ulivi, which is located in Arcugnanoin in the province of Vicenza in Veneto, you can have the pleasure of being able to enjoy some of the most famous food and wine specialties, discovering the gastronomy of the Veneto.
Baccalà alla Vicentina
Either for the gastronomic results, either for the right combination of wines, either for its execution time, but also because of its exclusivity, for its popularity and its origins, you could make a treaty for the cod alla vicentina, as well as spend hours and hours discussing about it.
But one thing is for sure: the cod alla vicentina represents one of the most vivid testimonies regarding the inventive capacities that characterize the people of Vicenza, who are able to grasp the opportunity from everything, with the aim to realize, with patient stratagems, egregious things in every field, especially in the kitchen.
From a stringy and woody fish as the cod, wet, adjusted with infinite patience, they are able to prepare some dishes that, to say the least, are simply beautiful and tasty. The Brotherhood of cod, whose corporate headquarters is located in Sandrigo in the province of Vicenza, has found what later was rendered valid as a result of numerous meetings and studies, the classical and therefore considered unique recipe of cod alla Vicentina.
Anyway we know very well how the art of gastronomy knows to develop a lot of imagination, a reason why in the end the variants of this delicious dish turn out to be plenty. In fact, there are those who believe that from four to five hours of slow cooking is essential and those who on the opposite claim that only three are needed; then there are those who do not pass the slices of cod in the flour and those who believe that this is a required step: there are those who take away the whole garlic joints in the middle of cooking and those who grind the garlic; as well as those who prefer a lot of milk to better lighten the appearance of the dish and those who, preferring a more delicate dish, and therefore less tasty, think that it is not needed to abound with onion and anchovy, as well as there are those that bind the slices to rolls.
Baccala alla vicentina foto giallozafferano
Pasta e Fasoi
Typical winter soup, pasta and beans was often enriched with bones or pork, salted or occasionally smoked, or even with meat. The addition of potatoes, connected to the habit linked to the need to save on the use of beans, provides a good creaminess; on the other hand celery gives a firmer taste.
Pasta and beans is certainly a dish dating back to the Middle Ages, characteristic of the popular cuisine of the Veronese. In the countryside where the use of wine is a rule, it is necessary to accompany it with dishes that are sufficiently strong and that, therefore, are able to lessen the typical ardor of wine.
Pasta and beans responds very well to this, as it is a robust dish, solid and sturdy, roughly plebeian devised by the fantasy of people which is always able to offer unsurpassed dishes, true works of art dedicated to eating well.
Risotto coi bruscandoli
Risotto ai bruscandoli
The bruscandoli, which are wild hops, along with other spontaneous herbs purely of spring season, are used, especially to enrich both the risotto and the omelette . A rich bunch of bruscandoli can give the right strength to rice and, at the same time, the other herbs know how to mitigate the softness given from the yolks.
In Veneto their consumption must be restricted to these two simple dishes which, nevertheless, know how to safeguard their sometimes wild and pungent typical flavor. It is easy to find them in the countryside, especially in soils that are still uncultivated, or along the banks of the ditches, which today is done by retired and old people.
Still, you can also buy the wild ones in a store. Their season is very short, about a month between March and April, but, if pan-fried briefly, they can be frozen for future usage.
Polenta e Osei
Polenta and Osei is one of those dishes of which one can find two versions which are different, given that one is sweet, while the other is salty. Polenta and Osei is one of the traditional dishes from Brescia, Bergamo and Veneto.
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