Venice: A Tour of the Rialto Market
with the Cooking Contessa – Enrica Rocca. Enrica Rocca takes us on a tour of her favorite and most trusted suppliers at the
Rialto fish and vegetable markets and shares a recipe with us in her cooking
school.
Above. The Rialto Mercato is situated
in the heart of Venice on the Grand Canal, next to the Rialto Bridge.
Rialto
Mercato. Elegantly clad, Enrica Rocca
arrives by vaporetto at the Rialto Mercato with her Cavalier King Charles
Spaniel, Soya and a Hermes orange trolley ready to be filled with the freshest
products that the market has to offer. Nicknamed the Cooking Contessa by The
Financial Times’ David Baker, he wrote, “Enrica Rocca runs a cooking school
beyond the ordinary. She’s an Italian cook of note and a flamboyant and
passionate chef and restaurateur. She has Italian cooking in her blood and a
contagious zest for life and food. Her dishes use two or three ingredients at
most, well chosen, cooked with simplicity and brought to the table with gusto.
Measurements are made by eye, timing done by instinct.” And, Gourmet Magazine
judged her as one of the 10 best cooking schools in the world.
photograph
and copyright by manfredi bellati
Rialto
Mercato - Erberia. Fruit, vegetables and
fish all arrive by boat at the Rialto Mercato. Enrica takes her cooking class
clients to the market to pick out ingredients “Because I think that cooking
starts from the choice of ingredients, so if you start with a good ingredient,
you don’t really need to know how to cook, because good ingredients, do not
need any transformation basically, that is my philosophy behind it.” She
explains.
Rialto Mercato –
Santin. Enrica’s first stop is to the
Santin for fruit and vegetables “Santin also has a stall at the market but, I
go to the warehouse as I am often in a
hurry and I don’t have to queue there. There is hardly anybody, and it’s fun, I can
go to the fridge, see everything and pick the freshest ingredients and put them
in my trolley directly."
Rialto Mercato –
Santin: Zucca Stagionata “The zucca
stagionata is an aged pumpkin. When the squash gets to maturation, they leave
it on the vine for two weeks so that it looses humidity; this concentrates the
flavor so that when you roast it, just with some olive oil, salt and rosemary
it’s incredible. You can also make a soup with it.”
Rialto Mercato – Santin: Castraure and Botoli artichoke. “The
castraure is the first floral shoot that the artichoke plant produces and is incredibility delicate, the name comes from the word to castrate. When the
plant flowers, they cut off the top, to strengthen it, so then it produces 18 to
20 artichokes, called Botoli. You can cook the castraure in many different
ways; my favorite is to just make a salad. They are crispy, not hairy,
not too bitter and absolutely fantastic with just a bit of olive oil and lemon
juice and a few shavings of Parmesan cheese. Whilst, the botoli are already a bit harder, so you can cook them, pan fry them in
oil olive, garlic and parsley, there are many ways of cooking them.”
Rialto Mercato – Santin:
Radicchio di Treviso. “The radicchio is a typical winter vegetable, it grows in the area
of Treviso, you can eat it in a salad or grilled and seasoned with just some
olive oil, salt and pepper and it’s delicious. You can also make a very nice risotto with it."
Rialto Mercato – Caffe
del Doge. Though Enrica likes to have
her morning cappuccino before she gets to the Rialto Mercato, “Sometimes I stop
with clients to have a coffee, it’s very nice at the Caffe del Doge. They do
coffee tasting, but this is outside my cooking class tour of the market. The coffee tasting is for people who just want
to do a tour of the market and meet some of my suppliers and enjoy the
atmosphere.” Besides her cooking classes Enrica, also organizes market tours,
bacari and ciccetti events, “First I take my clients to go taste cicchetti, then we
come back home and put all the ingredients out and then, I teach them how to put
them together. It’s particularly fun and nice for corporate clients. In fact we
organize all types of events in Venice."
Rialto Mercato - Pescheria - Rialto Fish
Market
photograph and copyright
by manfredi bellati
Rialto Mercato – Ittica Sandy. “I always go to the
Ittica Sandy fishmongers in the fish market, they are very serious and always
have a good selection.”
Rialto Mercato – Ittica Sandy: Cappelunghe. “The razor clams in England and America are much bigger, here they are really small and
quite delicate, whereas the bigger ones are quite chewy. You should just saute
them as you would do with mussels, you can put them on pasta, or in Venice it
is typical to just grill them with a bit of olive oil.”
Rialto Mercato – Ittica Sandy: Lucerna. “Gurnard Is a very boney fish with a particular shape,
which is why not many people use it. It used to be a very cheap fish until the
big chefs discovered it, and now it is nearly as expensive as sea bass. I would butterfly it and bake it or poach
it. In Venice there is a tradition of
poaching fish. You need a fish kettle.
Make a fish stock, a fumetto with water, white wine, celery, carrot, bay
leaf, onions, cloves, pepper corns and half a lemon and when it boils, you put your
fish in and poach it for a few minutes, and then put the lid back on and let it
cool in its water. It will steam away, until
it cools and it will be delicious to eat it with mayonnaise or with a bit of
olive oil."
Rialto Mercato – Lino
Fritto. “Lino Fritto is right in the
middle of Rialto fish market, it’s a very pretty modern little place, and they
make these glasses filled with different things. This morning we tried Cream of Buffalo
Mozzarella, Anchovy and Tomato and a Cream of Potato with Shrimp. It is almost a modern take-away ciccetto
place. These are more filling than ciccetti and they are quite sophisticated and
use all the ingredients from the market. It’s really nice to go for a quick lunch, and
a glass of Prosecco, and you are done."
Rialto Mercato – Lino
Fritto. A selection of their culinary
novelties interpreted with modern Italian spirit.
Rialto Mercato –
All’Arco. All’Arco. A lot of people
call All'Arco my Rialto office, because I spend a lot of time there. This is my
favorite bacaro in Venice, the most professional. Their ciccetti are
fantastic, the best. Father and son Francesco and Matteo run the place, they are
wonderful people and they really put all their heart in the choice of the
ingredients, we often meet in the vegetable warehouse, and he also goes to the
fish market. They always have five or
six staple ciccetti, like baccala made three different ways; they have
fantastic Spanish anchovies, which cost a fortune. I have usually have a Spritz
or a glass of Prosecco, depending on my mood. “
Rialto Mercato – All’Arco
– Matteo prepares cicchetti
Rialto Mercato – All’Arco
– A Spritz (Prosecco with Campari, soda water and a slice of orange) and two
cicchetti – A toasted bread cicchetto with Pancetta, Radicchio and Cheese and a
tramezzino (sandwich) with Eggs and Trout from Friuli.
Rialto Mercato – All’Arco
– Baccala (salted cod) Three ways, alla Vicentina, alla Mantecato and alla Veneziana
(with garlic).
Millevini Enoteca. On the other side of the Grand Canal
Enrica stops to chat with Lorenzo Menegus of the wine merchants, Millevini
Enoteca. “Lorenzo is a fantastic guy he
is a professional sommelier and is very passionate about wine. The name
millevini means one thousand wines, there is a huge selection and he knows them
all. He has a very close relationship
with the producers and visits them often. I
learnt everything I know today about Italian wines from him. On Mondays we work
together, we do classes and teach people how to pare wines to food.”
Rialto Mercato - seagulls
enjoy the scraps
Enrica’s Book - Venice on
a Plate. Back home in Enrica’s loft, where she teaches cooking, we are about to
prepare scallops, using a beautiful Murano glass dish to present them, “Because, that is the theme of my book, in which all the Venetian recipes are
presented on a Murano glass dish or bowl. The idea for the book was to take two
major cultures of Venice and to put them together. They go beautifully
together, because people used to use Murano glass, in olden times, on a daily
basis, not worrying if they were going to brake or not brake, it was normal. Sometimes I would feel a bit sorry for these
objects just on display, because when you put something inside them, they come
to life.
Above. Venice on a Plate
– But What a Plate! by Enrica Rocca with photographs by Jean-Pierre Gabriel,
published by Marsilio.
The Family Palazzo and Cooking
School. “My kitchen loft is in what used to be
the laundry of the family palazzo on the Guidecca Canal, the building dates
back to the 18th century. It is entirely surrounded by gardens, the
biggest in central Venice. It’s a magnificent property. I found my happiness in
the ex-laundry because it was the only section of the property where I could
have an open space, I don’t like traditional apartment spaces. This was perfect.
I love entertaining and I love it and designed it entirely and I love
contemporary art as well, it’s me.”
Capesante
o Canestrelli Gratinati
(Baked
Scallops or Canestrelli)
Much
smaller than a scallop, the canestrello is often tastier—but then in the world
of food small is always tastier. Any
recipe that you may find for scallops can usually also be adapted for
canestrelli, although it must be said that, considering their delicate flavor,
simple is better. If you are using canestrelli instead of scallops, just use
half of the quantities and top each canestrello with a teaspoon of the
breadcrumb mixture instead of a tablespoon.
1 kg sea scallops (or 500gr
canestrelli)
250gr breadcrumbs
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper, to taste
¼ slice of orange zest
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
¼ tsp grated ginger
Preparation Time - 45 minutes - serves 6
OPEN - the scallops with a shucking knife (an
ordinary butter knife will do if you haven’t got one) following the flat side
and clean them by pulling off the outer ring of the muscle and then rinsing
them under water (you could also ask your fishmonger to do this for you).
PLACE - the hollow half shells with the muscle
on an oven proof tray
Classic Venetian version:
Preheat - oven to 200 degrees Celsius
MIX - the breadcrumbs, garlic, and parsley
with a fork, drizzle with oil, and season with salt and pepper to taste
TOP - each half shelled scallop with a
tablespoon of the breadcrumb mixture.
BAKE - in preheated oven for 5-6 minutes, or
until the breadcrumbs are crunchy and golden
Enrica’s version:
Preheat - oven to 200 degrees Celsius
CUT - a slice of orange in 4 and place a
quarter on each shell
ADD - the fresh thyme and grated ginger
SPRINKLE - with a little oil
BAKE - in preheated oven for 5-6 minutes, or
until a golden ring forms around the scallops
Capesante
Gratinati – served on an orange filigree opaque Murano glass plate from the
1980s
Enrica
Rocca Prosecco. “The Prosecco is produced for me, I did it with the idea of
helping small producers, who produce exceptional things that people don’t know
about. So, I decided to use my brand to
be their ambassador and bring their products to the public. The Prosecco is the
first in a range of Enrica Rocca merchandize.
Enrica
Rocca Cooking School. “My school is based in Venice and I also teach in London,
and there is a franchise Enrica Rocca Cooking School in South Africa, handled by Emma who is Italian, from
Genova, she is a brilliant person and has an amazing personality, loves cooking
and loves people and is doing very
well. I run the two schools of Venice
and London on demand."
Pin It
