Venetian Cooking Class

When in Venice, Cook Like a Venetian Chef

We offer beginning and advanced cooking classes about the Venetian Cuisine

Learning the art of Venetian Cuisine

Venice’s Food. Simply. Veneto Cooking Classes hands on and fully interactive.
Cooking sessions are packed with fun.
Learn to cook delicious Venetian food with confidence using tips and pro skills, with a professional chef.

Capturing the essense of Veneto, Venice and its food

We share our knowledge of Veneto food and its history

DESCRIPTION –  The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Venetian Cuisine – Veneto Cooking Class

Veneto Cuisine and its recipes

If you want to taste real Veneto and Venice’s cooking, this class is the ideal place.
This lesson is an interesting and intimate guide to the authentic flavors and food of Venice and Veneto region.
The class focuses on traditional Veneto cooking and Venetian Food.
Although the traditional Italian ingredients are used throughout Italy and northern Italy, they are cooked and made in different ways in Veneto and in Venice.
Veneto offers a wide variety of food.

Here we do not have haute cuisine, but home cooking: respect for quality ingredients.
In Veneto region we do not cook with mozzarella cheese or sundried tomatoes or fresh tomatoes or green olives.
With this cooking class we want to give you an idea of the large variety of Veneto recipes and Venice’s Food.
If you came to visit us in Veneto, we would cook with you our old family recipes.

If the idea of Venetian food has intimidated you, then be intimidated no more.

Our cooking class teacher at The Rolling Pin Cooking School can introduce you to many of the dishes Venice is famous for, yet in an incredibly welcoming atmosphere and comfortable.

For antipasti starters, cicchetti are a classic Venetian dish. Other highlights include Venetian Spritz with soft and lovely tramezzini, baccalà mantecato, bigoli in salsa or pappardelle with duck ragù sauce, ravioli di magro, pumpkin gnocchi, clams and mussels sauteed with wine, risotto with chicken liver, and branzino al sale.
Of course, the authentic classic Tiramisù – layers of savoiardi biscotti dipped in espresso coffee and heaped with mascarpone that’s been whipped with sugar and organic eggs – is another classic sweet that you may not want to miss.

If you know Italy, you will know that each city of the country, each region, has its own distinct cuisine.
So it is not so surprising, when you think that Italy became a modern state in 1861.

Before then, the Italian peninsula and its islands were simply a collection of independent Kingdoms or city-states, with different origins, languages, traditions, stage of developments, extensions, and food.
Veneto region and Venice only became part of Italy in 1866. Before that, during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Venice dominated the Mediterranean sea as an independent republic, called ‘La Serenissima’.
During its rich history, Venice welcomed lots of merchants, travelers, pilgrims, artists, revelers, romantics, simple traders from the West and East alike.
They have contributed to building an extraordinary, unique, exotic, romantic, and rich city. Lots of influences are reflected in Venice’s food and Veneto’s culture.
Venetian food is rich in oriental or foreign and exotic spices and flavors: raisins and pine nuts, saffron or vinegar or bay leaves, clove, juniper berries, fennel seeds, nutmeg, cinnamon, red pepper flakes, or cumin: these ingredients or spices or flavors will transport you to another world!
The quantity of traditional recipes that the Venetian and Veneto’s people have is enormous.
A dish with the same name will be made in a slightly different way in every village, every town, and even every house or family.
For us, it is the food of our childhood: it is comfort food! our food reflects our traditional lifestyle: rich, rustic, and generous.

We’ll be sharing with you our cooking and baking adventures around our biggest passion: food, ranging from the zucchini frittata we made with our mother when we were nine years old to the famous Tiramisù.

VENETIAN COOKING CLASS DESCRIPTION

• Discover the flavours and benefits of local ingredients to provide a foundation for your Venetian cookery skills.
• Learn about the culture of the four seasons in Veneto.
• The teacher will be using English in the lessons
• The course will teach you everything (from how to use the cooking tools) so please do not worry if you have no cooking experience.
• This Veneto cooking class experience lasts for approximately 2 hours or full day long experience.
• Not demonstration but hands on cooking class
• Chooping, rolling pasta, folding and preparing your dishes – all hands-on.
• Sit and eat at the end with delicious DOC wines.

CAPACITY
8 people (the course shall open when 1 participant has joined)

What follows here is a collection of recipes that you will cook with us!
SEAFOOD & FISH MENU: You will learn fresh Scallop on the shell au gratin in Venetian style, Baked Mussels with breadcrumbs, garlic and parsley, Spaghetti con le Vongole, Tagliolini with Shrimps, Black Cuttlefish Risotto, Sarde in Saor, Cuttlefish in umido, Salt-baked Seabass Branzino al sale, Oven Roasted Seabream White Fish Orata with Potato in oven, Insalata alla Veneziana, Creamed Cod Baccalà Mantecato, Fried Anchovies, Octopus Salad, Venetian Lemon Sorbetto, Venetian Crostata Jam Tart, Ricotta Sweet Fritters Frittelle, Hazelnut Panna Cotta or Pistachio Panna Cotta, Galani Carnival Sweets (fried puffs with icing sugar), Chocolate Custard Budino with Amaretti cookies, Zabaione.

MEAT MENU: You will learn a few different recipes betwen the famous Risi and Bisi, Tramezzini (the Venetian version of English high tea sandwiches), Potato Gnocchi, Each region of Italy has its own pasta shapes and pasta recipes. Valeggio sul Mincio, a town near Lago di Garda and the city of Verona, the famous ‘Tortellini di Valeggio'(homemade of pasta with a filling of chicken, beef, and pork), Green or White Asparagus with egg sauce, Bean Soup Zuppa di Fagioli, Ravioli di magro spinach ricotta, Duck meat sauce with Pappardelle, Onion in Saor, Risotto con i gamberi prawn risotto, Cotechino, Squash Zucca in Saor, Venetian Meatballs Polpette, Polenta Bianca, Baked Radiccio with Grana Padano cheese, Fegato alla Veneziana, Brasato al vino rosso (Braised Beef in Refosco wine), Tiramisù, Biscotti Cornmeal Zaletti, Polenta Cake, Venetos’ Strudel, Sbrisolona, Almond Tart, Torta della Nonna (pine nuts and custard tart), our grandmother’s apple cake, Chocolate Salame.

The Veneto’s food has a wonderful variety and richness, inspiring tasty and sophisticated dishes based on poultry, meat and game, fish and seafood, and Mediterranean and Italian vegetables and fruits.

Italian staples like risottos or pasta sit alongside delicious polenta and soups.
Nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric, cloves, saffron, varieties of peppers, cassia, camphor were all mainstays of Venetian trade.
Today, lots of spices remain in the cuisine of Venice and the Veneto.
Many of mouthwatering dishes have fascinating stories or legends associated with them, passed down through the generations.
The Venetian and Veneto’s diet is made up of a few ingredients: rice, polenta, beans, fish, garden and seasonable vegetables, raisins, pine nuts, anchovies and parsley.

During the cooking class some special dishes, such as Sarde in Saor, homemade Pasta from scratch Bigoli, Fegato alla veneziana (Venetian style calf’s liver), and Baccalà Mantecato, fresh anchovies fried or Radiccio di Tardivo di Treviso, the famous Tiramisù or a delicious Panna Cotta in Venetian style can only be found in our region.

These are the dishes that we ate growing up: classic Veneto and Venice’s cuisine and its distinct style of cooking.

This Venetian cooking class is MUST DO! These are the foundations of Veneto cooking. Master these and you can build your fantastic meal and get the flavour of Venetian food in your kitchen.

Any questions? Get in touch! Email us soon: click—> here

A BRIEF GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY OF VENETO AND VENICE

The Veneto is a place of lagoons, water, rivers, lakes, and canals.
veneto combines foothills, mountains, coastline and plateaus and coastline.
A journey of a couple of hours can bring you from the peaks of the mountains (Dolomiti mountains) to the salty air of the Adriatic Sea.

The region is situated on the Adriatic Sea, the Alps in the north, the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in the east, Lombardy in the west, Emilia Romagna in the south, Austria in the north and northeast, and Trentino Alto Adige in the northweast.
This is a place of small towns and cities, where families still gather around hearths to eat pasta or soups, where authentic food is served with simplicity.

The first settlers to make an impact on this region (Veneto) were the Indo-European ‘Veneti’ (also called ‘Heneti’ or ‘Paleoveneti’, who inhabited the region during the 1st Millennium BC) until the Romans conquered the area, in the third century BC.
The earliest evidence of the ‘Veneti’ in Italy is found around Este, and dates back to the 9th century BC.
The most important centres of the ‘Veneti’ were Este and Padua (Padova): the maximum development occurred in the 6th–4th centuries BC https://www.britannica.com/topic/ancient-Italic-people/Other-Italic-peoples.
The ‘Veneti’ were traders and good navigators; protected by the waters of the Adige river and the Po river, they preserved their independence against Etruscan expansion and in the 3rd century BC entered into alliance with Romans.

The Romans founded Verona as a base for their expansion.
After the fall of Rome and its empire, Lombards and Goths invaded the region. (see more info here https://www.britannica.com/place/Venice
The city of Venice took shape in the early 7th century, when refugees from the mainland swelled existing communities on the higher sandbanks.
Lots of people fled moved from the mainland around the big lagoon (now Laguna Veneta) and established settlements there – Venice was born (421 AD).
With the rise of the city-states ‘signorie’ in Italy, in 1410, Venice controlled most of the Veneto region including Padua and Verona, reaching eventually Bergamo and Brescia.
Then Venice conquered the eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus, Crete, Eubea, may greek islands, Peloponneso, Istria and Dalmatia) and rose to become the most important trading power in Europe and important commercial power and one of the greatist cities in Renaissance Europe.
Venice “La Serenissima” conquered the surrounding area of the mainland and integrated Verona and Padua into the Venetian empire.
After a slow decay of power, Veneto was incorporated into the Hapsburg Empire in the 19th century, and finally, in 1866, into the Regno d’Italia Kingdom of Italy.

UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE PROPERTIES IN VENETO

UNESCO is a UN Agency: its job is to identify natural properites and and protect cultural sites around the world.
Veneto is truly a worderful region in Italy a sort of open – air museum.
Lots of important cities (not only Venice, but also Padua, Verona, Vicenza, ….) and places rich in artworks alternate with centuries-old villages.

For this reason, UNESCO has declared 10 cultural and natural places and biosphere reserve in Veneto as World Heritage Sites.
Prehistoric Pile Dwellings (Laghetto della Costa, Arqua Petrarca near Padua, and Tombola Cerea near Verona), Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene (an unique viticulture landscape), Venice and its Lagoon, City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto, Botanical Garden (Orto Botanico – Padua), City of Verona, the Dolomites mountains, Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles, Fortress of Peschiera del Garda (on the Lake Garda), and about the important Biophere Reserve Monte Grappa.

LOCATION: PADUA PADOVA – Veneto region – Northern Italy

CLASS DURATION:  a few different Venetian Cooking Classes between 2 hours and full day experience

DIFFICULTY: Beginner to Intermediate

CLASS TAGS: Food Lovers, Travelers, Heritage Seekers, For Couples, Slow Food, Farm to Table, Regional Italian Cuisine, Foundational Learning, (also Vegetarian), Cultural Preservation.