When in Venice…

Ihave lived in Venice for longer than I can remember. My family moved here from England when I was still small, intending to stay only for a year. But somehow we never left: Venice, with its winding canals and crumbling old buildings, has a way of taking hold of people’s hearts. Twenty-fve years on, after spending my university years in England, I am still here. I divide my time between London, where my husband works, and our little house in the sleepy district of Castello, which to me will always be home. This is where I write my blog, From My Dining Table, sharing recipes and tales from my Venetian kitchen.

The food of Venice doesn’t boast the same glittering reputation as that of other Italian regions. Generations of tourists, fed bland pasta in trattorie catering to a transient trade, have promulgated the myth of Venice as the kind of place you go to see art but not to eat. Venetian food, and by this I mean the food eaten by Venetians, remains the city’s most precious and closely guarded secret: the canocce – sweettasting, if somewhat peculiar-looking, crustaceans – served raw with nothing but a drizzle of olive oil; the bruscandoli – wild hops – which come into season for only a few weeks of each year; the pillowy Veneziana focaccia, which unlike its more widely recognised Genoese counterpart is buttery and sweet, and comes topped with almonds and sugar; the way we use spices, pine nuts and bay leaves when cooking fsh dishes and puddings alike; and the fne, faky almond pastries, kiefer, which like the spritz and the strudel are a legacy that lingers on from the days when Austrian soldiers occupied the city. It is a unique cuisine born from a city like no other, imbued with a complex history. It is the food of my childhood, laden with nostalgia and, as childhood food is wont to be, synonymous with comfort. Right Fresh fsh at Venice’s Rialto market; Skye McAlpine with Ben Tish, chef director of the Salt Yard restaurant group, who was welcomed into her kitchen; enjoying a Venetian-style fsh stew

Venetian food, and by this I mean the food eaten by Venetians, is the city’s most precious secret: the canocce – sweet-tasting, if peculiar-looking, crustaceans – served raw with olive oil; the bruscandoli – wild hops – in season for only a few weeks of each year…