Venetian Cicchetti (Part 2) – How to Plan a Cicchetti Menu & Recipe for Fried Eggplant “Flying Saucer” Sandwiches

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Welcome to Part 2 of my conversation about Venetian cicchetti. In my last post, Venetian Cicchetti (Part 1) – An Intro, A Love Letter, Advice, I discussed what cicchetti are, a bit about their history, and the culture surrounding them. Having laid the foundation, I’m going to do my favorite thing and talk about the food itself! I provide a lot of information but, in doing so, by the end of this post you should be confident enough to compose a Venetian cicchetti menu of your own. Also, I am going to share a flexible and delicious eggplant recipe to add to your appetizer repertoire. In this case, your cicchetti repertoire! Let’s get going, shall we?

Venetian Cicchetti – Part 2 of a collaboration

If you read my last post, you’ll know that these two posts are a part of a collaboration with chef, blogger, and food writer Terri Salminen. If you are unfamiliar with her work, you can find her Instagram page here. She’s a talented woman who expresses herself beautifully and takes simply gorgeous photos. We’ve had a lot of fun working together. I urge you to read both of her posts on Venetian cicchetti. In the first, she describes her relationship with cicchetti in Venice and Vicenza where she grew up. This time, she is going to discuss preparations in saor (more on that below), which I simply adore. Terri has had a lot of fun investigating the history of saor in Venice. I look forward to hearing her discoveries and also can’t wait to check out her recipe. You can find her latest post here.

Cicchetti Menu classics

There is so much published about the iconic Venetian seafood dishes that I will not emphasize them in this article. Information about them and recipes are plentiful both online and in cookbooks. In addition, high-quality fresh seafood is not available everywhere. With these thoughts in mind, I’ve set out to provide Venetian cicchetti menu ideas that are accessible no matter where you live. Why should those of us who live far away from the water be left out of the fun?

Even so, I do want to briefly discuss some of my favorites:

Baccalà Mantecato

In essence, it is stoccafisso (air-dried cod) whipped with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, parsley (optional), salt, and pepper until it becomes light and fluffy. It is usually served as a main course with polenta. If you see it in cicchetti form, it’s served on a baguette slice or on a piece of grilled polenta. It’s one of the dishes that I crave the most when I’m away from Venice. Note, even though the name baccalà means salt cod throughout Italy, in Venice, the name generally refers to air-dried cod. Confusing, I know!

Sarde in Saor

A glorious preparation that Terri will discuss in detail. In short, fried sardines are covered in a cooked onion mixture with white wine vinegar and oil, sometimes wine. If you are familiar with escabeche or Zucchine alla Scapece, you’ll understand the concept. The sardines usually marinate, covered with this onion mixture for at least a day before serving. Some Venetians keep the dish simple and plain, and others add pine nuts and raisins to the onions. I like the dish both ways and the most important thing for me is the balance of vinegar.

You can prepare saor with other kinds of fish such as monkfish, shrimp, sole and even vegetables like pumpkin. One of my favorite variations is with shrimp. It’s so delightful. Seeing as shrimp are much more accessible than many kinds of seafood, you may want to consider trying the dish with shrimp. Sarde in Saor is often on menus as an appetizer. When it is a cicchetto, a single sardine is served on a baguette or grilled polenta slice, topped with onions.

Seppie al Nero

In brief, cuttlefish cooked in its own ink. I have an entire post about this scrumptious Venetian classic. Click here for my recipe and description. You can serve the dish as a main course with polenta, on spaghetti, or as a cicchetto on a grilled polenta slice. (I’m all about the spaghetti…) The recipe is a stunner, taught to me by a Venetian nonna (grandmother). Do try it if you can get your hands on fresh cuttlefish with the ink sacs intact.

Baccalà alla Vicentina

This dish from Vicenza is so popular (and scrumptious) that it is a frequent menu item in Venice. Like Sarde in Saor and Baccalà Mantecato, it can be a main course or served on a cicchetti menu. It is a rich and beautiful dish of stoccafisso cooked very slowly with onions, de-salted sardines (or sometimes anchovies), extra virgin olive oil, a touch of flour (to thicken), milk, parsley, and Grana Padano cheese. It’s positively glorious.

Fritto Misto

Fried seafood… Need I say more? Generally speaking, fried fish preparations in Italy are a simple affair. You lightly cover your fresh, cleaned fish with flour, salt, and pepper and fry it. Serve it with lemon wedges. Heavy sauces and crazy condiments are not the norm. Ideally, the freshness of the seafood is what will stand out. The varieties of fish are generally small and bone-in, such as sardines, anchovies, and red mullet. Also common are shrimp and calamari. For cicchetti, you will often find fried calamari or shrimp on a skewer. A large fritto misto is a main course.

Sarde Fritte

Fried sardines are a popular item in Venice. They are scrumptious in all of their various forms – dipped in flour and fried, breaded and fried, or stuffed and fried. You can’t go wrong. For those wary of sardines and have only had them canned, do give them a try if you are visiting Venice.

Insalata di Piovra (or Polpo)

In its most basic form, octopus salad is a simple and delightful dish of boiled octopus cut into pieces and combined with extra virgin olive oil, parsley, and lemon juice. Often it will include potato or celery. To serve as a cicchetto, it can be chopped fine and served on a crostino, in a scallop shell, or sometimes, you can get a little plate of it.

I’m going to leave the classics there. To clarify, this list is not exhaustive but should be a good intro!

Cicchetti Menu Ingredients

OK. It’s time for us to discuss common ingredients that I have seen used in countless ways in my cicchetti binges. That is to say, the ones that aren’t fancy varieties of fish or local produce that no one will find outside of Venice. Below is a selection of simple and obtainable ingredients that you can use for your cicchetti menu:

Leeks

Leeks are an ingredient that I usually associate with Tuscany due to their widespread usage in that region. (For those interested, see my recipe for Tuscan gnudi made with leeks.) However, they appear in cicchetti bars (bàcari) frequently. I’ve sampled thinly sliced leeks cooked and mixed into soft cheeses (such as ricotta and gorgonzola), and also served raw, julienned on top of crostini. Seeing how readily available and economical they are, you should definitely find a way to incorporate them. I think leeks are neglected and underused. Don’t you? They also add a nice touch of color.

Canned Tuna

If you are planning a cicchetti menu of your own, I don’t think that you should do so without incorporating tuna. It is that widespread. Tuna is predominantly utilized in polpette and on crostini.

Polpette are often meatballs but are not limited to meat. They are balls, patties, or croquettes of either meat, vegetables, legumes, fish, cheese, or even old bread. You can make polpette out of anything really! Tuna polpette are delicious. For example, you can mix tuna with potato, capers, egg, and parsley, form them into patties and fry them. Alternately, you can make a mixture of tuna, ricotta cheese, egg, and citrus zest which I just had recently on a quick visit to Venice. It was lovely. Frankly, the possibilities are endless.

For crostini, you can mix tuna with mayonnaise, salt, and pepper, and garnish as you desire. One of my favorite bàcari makes tuna salad (supposedly with some brandy in it) and tops it in creative and unique ways. Incredibly one of their toppings is cocoa powder! It works! Sometimes they top the mixture with edible flowers. The sky’s the limit. Remember those leeks? I’ve also had tuna with a julienne of raw leeks on top. As long as you have some tuna in your pantry, you’ll be set for at least one item on your cicchetti menu! I prefer good quality tuna in oil over tuna in water. It has much more flavor.

Eggs

Eggs… who doesn’t love them? They are so delicious and incredibly versatile. A common sight at a bàcaro is half of a hard-boiled egg with a toothpick stuck in it. Often the eggs are embellished with a simple topping. Here are some typical ways to garnish them:

• Drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper
• Draped with an anchovy (this combo is iconic and superb)
• Topped with smoked salmon or smoked trout
• Dolloped with salmon roe
• Simply topped with a sun-dried tomato

Obviously, these are just a few ideas. As an alternative to hard-boiled eggs, you can also make a simple frittata. Make your favorite frittata (Italian omelet), cut it into squares, and stick some toothpicks into each square. Boom! You now have another easy item to add to your spread.

Lastly, you can make crostini with eggs. Simply scramble some eggs (delicately), slice a baguette and top with the eggs and garnish as desired. Or, you can make an egg salad and make crostini with that. Add a pretty garnish to make it special.

Radicchio

Another way to incorporate a Venetian element into your cicchetti menu is to add some radicchio. It’s so popular. I understand that the Italian fondness for bitter flavors isn’t for everyone but, little by little, you can develop a love of them! Over time, I definitely have. Radicchio can be used as a garnish, stuffing, salad, crostini topping, or even as a vegetable side. It definitely adds some beautiful color to your table! For radicchio lovers, please take a look at my recipe for Savory Italian Crepes with Radicchio di Treviso, Taleggio, & Speck.

Zucca (Winter Squash)

Winter squash is yet another economical, traditional, and delicious ingredient you can incorporate into your meal. You can use any kind of winter squash that you like such as butternut squash, Kabocha, Delicata, or pumpkin. Here are some ideas on how to use it:

• Zucca in Saor – as I mentioned above, saor preparations can include winter squash
• Polpette – for example, winter squash, your favorite Italian cheese, and cured meat such as speck or pancetta
• Croquettes or arancini – you can use leftover squash risotto, stuff it with cheese, coat in bread crumbs, and fry into crocchette or balls
• Crostini – top a baguette slice with squash puree topped with either leek, gorgonzola, smoked ricotta, or radicchio with some aged balsamic vinegar. Delicious… Your vegetarian friends will be happy.

Artichokes

Ah, the mighty artichoke. As in Rome, artichokes are insanely beloved in Venice. Although you won’t be able to find the same variety of artichokes that they grow there (I can’t find them here in Bologna!), you can certainly use what you can get. Fortunately for those intimidated by fresh artichokes, jarred artichokes are also popular in the city. Try some of these simple suggestions:

• Trim a large artichoke down to the heart and boil it, cut it in half, then stick a toothpick in it, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper
• Serve braised artichokes as a side, garnished with chopped parsley
• Buy some high-quality jarred artichokes and stick a toothpick in each piece
• Mince jarred artichokes, season as desired, and make crostini
• Make crostini with your favorite cured meat and top with a jarred artichoke
• Polpette with artichoke and ricotta

Gorgonzola

Blue cheese lovers rejoice! One of the easiest things you can add to your cicchetti menu is a crostino with gorgonzola on top. This simple delight is all over Venice! Why not, right? It’s delicious, easy and it can be topped in many different ways. You may use gorgonzola dolce (sweeter, creamier, and younger) or gorgonzola piccante (stronger flavored and aged longer). Both are widely used. The following are some common ways to top your crostini with gorgonzola:

• Gorgonzola dolce and anchovy
• Crostini with gorgonzola dolce with chopped or whole walnuts
• Mix your cheese with cooked, julienned leeks
• Sprinkle with chopped pistachios
• Top gorgonzola piccante with marmalade or honey

Anchovies

Poor anchovies… they get such a bad rap outside of the Mediterranean! As an American, I grew up disliking them. I used to gasp with horror whenever my Italian father ordered pizza topped with anchovy. Thankfully, I’ve come around and am now addicted to the things. Now I don’t care whether they are fresh, salted, in oil, or marinated, I adore them all. In Venice, anchovies of any sort are popular. They are delicious, economical, and easy to incorporate into a proper cicchetti menu. Anchovies add an incredible amount of umami to dishes. As you may have noticed, I have already mentioned them several times. Following are more ways to incorporate them into your menu:

• Alici Marinate – marinated anchovies are fresh anchovies that are “cooked” in vinegar or lemon, like ceviche, they turn white and completely different from the anchovies you are used to
• Polpette – you can make delicious balls out of fresh anchovies with raisins and pine nuts inside
• Fried anchovies – like sardines, you can fry fresh anchovies
• Crostini with butter and anchovies – a delicious and simple appetizer
• Mozzarella or burrata and anchovies are magical combinations – you can make crostini or stick an anchovy on top of bocconcini of mozzarella
• Top a pickled onion with a rolled anchovy that’s been stuffed with a caper and insert a toothpick

Cured Meats

If you are not a cook, have no fear. Cured meats (salumi) are here to help. Happily, you can make so many little nibbles with Italian cured meats. Love prosciutto with melon? Serve that! You can make the pairing cicchetti by making bite-sized portions and sticking in a pretty skewer or toothpick. Done. Or, you can serve it on crostini. Don’t stress. Here are some common offerings:

• Mortadella cubes plain or garnished with things like pickled onion or pickled green chili
• Creative crostini with cured meats combined with an unlimited variety of garnishes
• Soppressa (a cured meat from the Veneto) or other salame sliced thickly and served plain or on a crostino
• Mini sandwiches filled with cured meats and Italian cheeses

A word of advice, get the best quality cured meats that you can, preferably from Italy. You will taste more flavor of the meat versus simply salt and fat (and nitrates…). However, there are passionate artisans outside of Italy that are producing high-quality salumi nowadays. It’s a fabulous development.

Seasonal Vegetables

Thankfully, as you romp around Venice and sample cicchetti, there are many seasonal vegetables on display everywhere. It’s paradise to order little plates of veggies, as the flavor and quality of the local produce is something to savor. You can do the same by preparing seasonal vegetables for your cicchetti menu. You don’t need to do much more than cook them and add good quality extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and garnish with some parsley. Simplicity is best.

Verdure sott’olio or sott’aceto

Just like everywhere in the world, Italy cans and ferments things. Verdure sott’olio are nothing more than vegetables that are canned, covered in oil. While, if you see the term sott’aceto, they have been canned in a vinegar solution. These items are a great thing to have around as they can be used in so many ways, quickly and easily. Some common items suitable for a cicchetti menu are:

• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Pickled onions
• Jarred artichokes
• Olives
• Olive paste
• Pickled green chili peppers
• Capers
• Funghi sott’olio (jarred mushrooms in oil)
• Jarred roasted peppers
• Truffle pastes

All of these items can be used in countless ways. Try to keep some of them at the ready in your pantry. The verdure sott’aceto work especially well with fatty items as the acid in the pickled vegetables cuts through the fat and creates a nice contrast. Be creative and play with flavors that you like.

Cicchetti Menu Ideas and Categories

As I described in my first post, the bàcari in Venice can feature different kinds of cicchetti. I want to go over those categories again briefly to help you organize your menu. You can be your own cicchetti bar owner and choose one or all of the categories below to suit your budget, time, and desire!

Fried

Some bars in Venice specialize in fried noshes, for example:

• Polpette – balls made out of meat, tuna, vegetables (such as eggplant), cheese, bread, or fish, sometimes legumes
• Fried fish or shrimp
• Mozzarella in Carrozza – mozzarella sandwich on white bread that is dipped in egg and flour and fried
• Zucchini flowers stuffed with mozzarella and anchovy, placed in a batter, and fried
• Rice balls or arancini
• Fried baccalà
• Potato croquettes
• Olive Ascolane – meat-stuffed, breaded, and fried green olives

Crostini

If you are going to stick to one kind of cicchetti, you may as well follow the example of many bars in Venice and focus on crostini. They are quick, easy, and flexible. As I said in my first post, you don’t even need to toast your baguette, simply slice and top as desired.

Traditional dishes

If you have access to good seafood, you may choose to make one of the classics that I talked about above and add that to your menu.

Vegetables

Vegetables are always welcome on a cicchetti menu. In the spring you can braise some fresh English peas or beautiful artichokes if you can get them. Otherwise, in the summer, grill some eggplant or zucchini. They can always be incorporated into one of your other nibbles.

Little sandwiches

You don’t see mini sandwiches everywhere (apart from tramezzini which are different). However, two of the most popular and crowded places that I’ve ever seen in Venice specialize in them. If you are a bread baker or have a bakery near you that sells cute little mini rolls or buns, you can fill them as desired and watch them vanish. One fun thing about these places is that they often use a variety of mini rolls such as white, wheat, pretzel, zucca, multi-grain, etc. The displays can be very colorful and fun as a consequence, and the fillings are often incredibly creative.

Often, they will serve craft beers. This is something to keep in mind for guests that aren’t wine lovers. There is some incredible artisanal beer in Italy. I don’t think that a lot of people understand that. Seek some out.

Things on toothpicks & things on skewers

Bites on toothpicks… you can’t get easier than that. If you really don’t cook at all, but still want to entertain, you can at the very least assemble things in this category! Here are some classics:

• Cubed mortadella, served as is or with a pickled onion or green chili on top
• Cheese cubes – such as Asiago, pecorino, or another favorite Italian cheese
• Olives
• Mini Caprese salad
• Fried or boiled shrimp or calamari
• Pickled onion with an anchovy on top

What to drink with your Cicchetti menu

OK. You have your cicchetti menu. Now you need to serve a drink, no? As I stated in my last post, the wines of the Veneto are extraordinarily good. There are many wonderful red and white wine options to choose from. Personally, I would have both available for my guests. Also, Prosecco is from the area. You could always start with a nice chilled glass of bubbly. Otherwise, another option is to serve Spritzes for a proper aperitivo hour!

The Aperol Spritz has become quite the popular thing throughout Italy and beyond. Yet you might not be aware that there are other kinds of Spritzes. For instance, if you find Aperol Spritzes too sweet, try another “bitter aperitivo.” Not only can you use Aperol but you can try Campari or perhaps Cynar (made with artichokes).

Another alternative is the ultra-Venetian Select. (The pronunciation is SEH-lect. For some reason they put the accent on the first half of the word!) This bitter is originally from the Castello sestiere (neighborhood) where my brother-in-law lives. Created in 1920 at the Pilla Distillery, it is a mixture of 30 different aromatics. It is darker in color than Aperol and has a lovely flavor. To garnish, a green olive on a skewer or a lemon slice (or both) is the norm, distinct from the ubiquitous orange slice in an Aperol Spritz. Seek it out if you want to try something a little different and very Venetian. It is available outside of Italy.

The Recipe – “Dischi Volanti” alla Cicchetteria Venexiana da Luca e Fred

Now, it’s time for the recipe! This is a dish that I first tasted in 2014 at the “Cicchetteria Venexiana da Luca e Fred” in the Cannaregio neighborhood. At this old-fashioned cicchetti bar, they predominantly serve Venetian classics and have a ton of fried appetisers. It is not a fancy place but I like its simplicity and I adore one of their specialties called “Dischi Volanti“.

What are they you ask? Well, the name means flying saucers (or flying discs)! They take extra thin slices of eggplant and put them in a thick batter. Then, once they fry them, they emerge from the oil all puffed and golden, looking like flying saucers! Frankly, they would be delectable on their own, but some brilliant person at da Luca e Fred turned them into little sandwiches. Usually, they fill them with a variety of cured meats and cheeses and serve several kinds per day. They are super yummy, playful, and cute.

We went to Venice recently and I went to da Luca e Fred to sample these again before testing but they were sold out! Thankfully, the owner told me what ingredients he puts in his batter and I was able to come up with a really good approximation of their dish. To my surprise, my daughter devoured many of them, so they are kid-approved! I hope that you enjoy them!

Notes on the recipe

In the recipe below, I provide specific eggplant and batter quantities. I do not however give exact amounts for the filling because you may want to serve more than one kind of “disco volante”. When I serve these, I make at least 3 different filling options. I will leave this to your taste and creativity. Be sure to not overstuff them. At da Luca e Fred, they add dried oregano and minced rosemary to some of their fillings. I recommend that you try one or the other! They add a lot of nice flavor.

At da Luca e Fred, these are generally made in advance and warmed for guests in the microwave. This is pretty standard practice for all of the fried items you see in Venice. As I said in my last article, many of these bàcari are pretty bare-bones and often don’t cook on the premises. So, even though this is a fried item, you can make them ahead. Anything that makes entertaining easier is a good thing, right?

Lastly, the pastella…

A batter in Italy is called a pastella. What goes into an Italian batter varies. I usually opt for simple water (or fizzy water), flour, and salt batters but this pastella has egg, milk, flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a leavening agent. At da Luca e Fred, they use yeast but I was also told that instant leavener works too. When I tested the recipe, I tried 3 batters – one with yeast, the second with American baking powder, and the last with Italian lievito istantaneo for savory preparations. All three worked and seeing as the differences were negligible, I’d say it isn’t worth it to use the yeast. If you use a simple instant leavener, you won’t have to wait for your batter to rise.

Have fun with your Venetian Cicchetti menu

Well guys, I hope that I have given you enough ideas to create a fun and simple gathering that will allow you to be in Venice in spirit! As you can see, a Venetian-style cicchetti menu doesn’t have to be fancy or inaccessible. Cooks of all levels can create something fun, playful, and yummy. Make sure that you take a good look at all of the photos in both posts to help with ideas.

Do try the “Dischi Volanti,” they are so whimsical and delicious. It’s Spritz o’clock everyone! Happy cicchettizing!