The Veneto region, comprising the islands of Venice, and a vast, dry land territory covering Padova, Verona, and Vicenza was largely an agricultural area dedicated to farming of corn, soft wheat, and fruits and vegetables during the pre-industrial age. Money was scarce, and families survived largely on the fruits of their labor, fish from the Venetian lagoon, and a diet creatively designed around those organic grains, like corn, that were in abundance. Meats were considered a luxury. In fact, cured meats and salamis were a solution to the lack of refrigeration and provided a hearty alternative to the otherwise “poor” diet.Thus, the organic baking traditions reflected not only the antique traditions, but also the organic ingredients most readily available. Converting corn into polenta for a sweet cookie or for the dinner table represented the marriage of necessity to nutrition. In fact, most of the traditional Venetian organic cookies are dry, rather than moist, given the scarcity of organic ingredients, the difficulty in conserving them, and the palette preferences of the Venetians for a drier organic cookie. Many of the desert and organic cookie recipes were secret, passed down through the maternal side, and often […]

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