Freezing Venice & Risotto with Radicchio, Prosecco and Baby Lagoon Prawns

What a difference twelve months make. To think that this time last year, Dino and I were enjoying the Sydney sunshine, whilst watching the pasty English cricket team, (unfortunately) bash the bronzed Australians. Nothing could stand more in stark contrast, to what we're going through here, this winter. 

freezing venetian lagoon

Currently, Venice is shivering through a severe cold snap, one of the worst anyone I've talked to can remember. Parts of the lagoon have become salty sheets of ice, and the canals of the city have been transformed into an emerald green granita! Still, it's not as bad as the bitter winter of 1929, when people could actually walk from Venice to the mainland over the frozen lagoon!!

Our friend, Margaretha Breil braved arctic temperatures to photograph these gelid scenes not witnessed for many, many decades.

icy gondolas

 None the less, I decide to face the frost and ice and make my way to the Rialto markets, to see what's on offer. I find crates full of radiant, red, radicchio. There are many different types: Radicchio di Treviso (thin, pointy leaves), Radicchio Precoce (wider leaves, pointy, shaped like a rugby ball), Radicchio di Chioggia (looks like a round iceberg lettuce, and has a round head), Variegato and Radicchio Rosa.

You can prepare this versatile vegetable in many many ways: in a salad, sautéed in butter, roasted on the grill, baked with besciamella, in a with pasta and pancetta and chili... the list goes on.

Radicchio, like most of the produce at the markets, is seasonal, making its first appears in November and remaining throughout the winter. The crunchy leaves are especially at their tastiest after frosts, so this is DEFINITELY the right time to buy some. 

I've also picked up some very naughty baby prawns, they are sold live, so live in fact, that I can feel them bouncing around in the bag attempting to make their escape! An ideal winter comfort food, for me has always been carbohydrates, carbohydrates, and more carbohydrates, so tonight I'm going to serve up a heart warming Risotto with Radicchio and (jumping!) Lagoon Prawns. I have a sneaky suspicion that most of the dead fox fur wearing old ladies, who are attempting to push in front of me, have a similar idea.

baby lagoon prawns

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Polar Bears in Venice & Lentils with Sausage

On the first day of the year, we went to the beach on the Lido to watch the “Ibernisti”, I like to call them the Polar Bears.
They're a group of intrepid bathers, who try to take a dip in the sea every day of the year, no matter what the weather, and on New Year's Day, they do it in STYLE.

In Venice, its customary to eat "Lenticchie e Musetto" (Lentils and Sausage) as your first meal of the year, to encourage lady luck to smile upon you."Musetto" actually means the face, yes the face, or if you are a pig, the snout. It is made up of some meat parts of the face, other cuts of pork meat, the rind and many many secret spices.

lucky fellow

This traditional New Year's dish, combines two of Italy's culinary symbols of good luck and fortune. Lentils, when cooked, swell and resemble coins, and the pork sausage, thanks to its fat content, represents wealth. What right minded Venetian, could say no, to this double whammy of wealth and fortune, and even better, it's all served for free! This dish, is what awaits the thirty or so, not so right minded Polar Bears, plus a couple hundred, heavily dressed, hungry onlookers. Some of the crowd, actually DO resemble  bears!

The swim-suited bears, pad slowly towards the waters edge, holding balloons (for safety?!) and take their icy plunge in the Adriatic, safe in the knowledge that when they get out all smiling and jack frosted, they'll warm themselves up with piping hot, wealth inducing lentils with a thick piece of prosperous, sticky sausage, a glass or two of vino and a hearty slice of panettone (Italian Christmas cake).

having a drink or two...

... or 30!!

We cheer and hoot them for about two minutes, and then race back up the beach to form an orderly Italian line (it was, surprisingly!) to get our food, leaving our hero's squealing and turning various shades of pink in the shivering sea. 

Thus, the Venetian food calendar begins.

So, how to make this hearty wintery dish. Well, the recipe is a breeze, and, remember, any flavoursome fatty sausage will do, or you add a thick piece of smoky pancetta (bacon) during the cooking of the lentils, this will impart a great smoky taste.

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