Traditional Venetian Carnival food you should try

There are many ways toget the most out of Venice Carnival, one of these is certainly taste a so-called frittella, a couple of castagnole and some galani.

Don’t feel guilty if you can’t stop eating frittelle once in Venice, putting up some weight is part of the fun!

Traditional Venetian Carnival food: the frittelle recipe

If you’ve been to Venice before during Carnival, you’ll probably have already tasted the frittelle, in all their variations, in fact, there are cream frittelle, frittelle with raisin, frittelle with zabaglione or chocolate but we are sure you don’t know the recipe yet.

• 250gr flour
• 30gr sugar
• 1 glass of milk
• 30gr pine nuts
• Yeast
• 1 egg
• 30 gr raisin
• Lemon peel
• Peanut seed oil for frying

In a large bowl mix the yeast with a glass of warm milk and 50gr of flour, then let it rest for a while, at least until the mixture has doubled its volume.

In the main time, allow the raisins to soak in warm water for a full 30 minutes.

Take the mixture you’ve prepared earlier, and add the rest of the flour, an egg, 30gr of sugar, then the raisins, the lemon peel, and the pine nuts.

Work the mixture adding a pinch of salt, then use a spoon to make small balls you’ll fry in a pan full of hot oil. Before serving, sprinkle a bit of icing sugar, above the frittelle.

How to make the galani, a typical Venetian Carnival pastry

Venice is not the only city in Italy where you can taste galani, but they probably have a different name. The galani recipe seems to date back to the Roman Empire, which means that they were born before the Venetian frittelle. Let’ see the recipe.

• 500gr flour
• 100gr sugar
• 40gr butter
• 2 eggs
• Lemon peel
• 1 spoon of rum
• A pinch of salt
• Some icing sugar to decorate

Making galani it’s easy. First of all, mix all the ingredients into a bowl and let them rest for a couple of hours, then stretch it until it becomes very thin. Now it’s time to give the galani their typical shape, using a cutting wheel.

Fry them all making a small cut on the top of each galano, then serve them with some icing sugar.

Castagnole recipe: are you ready to lick your fingers?

Castagnole are a very typical Venetian Carnival food and the recipe is really easy. Let’s start with the ingredients you’ll need.

• 400g flour
• 50g sugar
• 80g butter
• 2 eggs
• A pinch of salt
• Baking powder with added vanilla flavoring
• Lemon peel
• Oil for frying
• Icing sugar

Soften the butter and put it in a bowl with the two eggs and the 50gr of sugar. Stir everything and add the flour, the lemon peel, the yeast and a pinch of salt. Then make some small balls from the mixture, helping yourself with a spoon, and put them in a pan full of hot oil.

Let them fry and then serve them with some icing sugar.