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VICENZA Food and Wine
If you are serious about food and wine, then you will soon realise that you are most definitely in the right place. As noted by plenty of distinguished travel and food writers, the richness and variety of Vicenza’s local produce and cuisine, is on a par with the very best that Italy has to offer: white asparagus in Bassano, delicate black porcini mushrooms from the Berico hills, cherries of Marostica: each locality has developed over the ages and cultivates with such passion, even the most humble specialty - such as the unbelievably mouth watering peas of Lumignano - to the highest level. These have then found there way into the traditional pasta, gnocchi and risotto dishes of the area such as the favourite risi e bisi (dialect for risotto with peas) which may well sound very run of the mill, but only, that is, until you place the first forkful in your mouth.
As usual, the very best food has the most humble of origins and so it is in Vicenza as well. The local specialty that springs to mind here is Baccalà alla Vicentina, a very delicate dish, complex to prepare correctly, yet based on salt-cured cod (stockfish), which unlike meat was traditionally affordable to the masses. The lengthy preparation involves soaking for a couple of days, then a series of procedures involving oil, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper, grated grana cheese (or maybe not - but let’s not start that argument all over again) anchovy filets, parsley, and garlic, as well as somewhere along the line the pounding in a mortar with milk. It is finally served with yellow or white polenta. It’s much easier when they do it for you.
The most famous local cheese, is of course Asiago, which surely enough comes from Asiago, located in Vicenza’s alps about an hour from town. Well worth a visit, the entire area, known collectively as the Altopiano Dei Sette Comuni, offers skiing in the winter and spectacular walks in the nearby alpine mountain range, known as the Dolomites, in the summer; the local cuisine is worth the trip alone. Other cheeses you will find are as interesting as much for the name as for the taste, such as the Puzzone (the smelly one) from nearby Trentino or the Bastardo (you can well guess what that means).
Wines and spirits of Vicenza would make for a fine doctoral thesus, suffice to say that the province has scores of prized wine producers, a third of which are DOC. The cabernet, merlot, tocai and pinot grape varieties are well established, and traditional wines you should sample include: Durello, Torcolato, Reciotto and Raboso. Don’t miss the many flavoured grappas of Barbarano or Bassano