3 Tips for a Stellar Saor (Venetian Recipe)

A Year of Seasonal Eating | pt.1

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A Year of Seasonal Eating (part 1)

There are two major forces in my life: cabbage in winter and my mother in law all year long.

Now, the two things go hand in hand more often than one may think. Broke as I’ve always been, daughter of a nomad family, and a city dweller, too, I was shocked at first, and then excited, when only local and seasonal produce started filling my fridge, a few years ago.

Every week, my mother in law receives a DM from her “veggie dealer”, asking her what she’d like to get. A few seconds later, photographs of the freshest produce start flooding my phone, followed by the familiar “what should I get you, guys?” to which I usually reply: “we’ll get the same as you!”.

And so she gets what’s in season... for all of us. In winter, this means cabbage (but also radicchio!).

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In Season: February

Artichokes, cabbages, kale, chard, lettuces, chicory, radicchio, puntarelle, cardoon, endive, cauliflowers, celeriac, swedes, (forced rhubarb, although not so much in Italy or Veneto), leeks, carrots, Brussels sprouts, turnips, beetroot, spinach, Jerusalem artichokes. Herbs: Winter savoury, parsley, chervil, coriander, rosemary, bay, sage. - The Almanac

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Radicchio to lift the spirits

The veggie dealer, also known as the farmer with the blue van, travels from his sandy lagoon fields in Cavallino to the very urban centre of Mestre twice a week. With him, a cargo of knobbly vegetables and fruit. In winter, radicchio and artichokes to cheer up the spirits, cabbage for the lonely winter days, earthy potatoes, onions and pale leeks to reinforce a bean soup.

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Radicchio in:

• a salad, with vinegar and pepper

• a white lasagna (without tomato sauce)

• saor

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Saor

Saor is a typical sweet and sour Venetian starter made of 1) a base preparation of onions and vinegar that is added to 2) fried sardines or other fish (but also vegetables like eggplant, pumpkin and radicchio, depending on the season) to enhance the taste and prolong the shelf life.

About saor

Saor is super cool, with lots of vinegar¹ and onions, and raisins too. A flagship dish of the Venetian cuisine that was made to last for many days at sea so that fishermen and sailors had always something nice to eat.

Like most poor man’s food, it has a distinctive taste that somehow, almost miraculously, is achieved by means of a scant handful of ingredients and simple methods. By the way, saor is the equivalent of the word “taste” in the local dialect.

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Venetian people love their saor. Be it in summer or winter, they enjoy eating it when there’s something to celebrate. The Redentore feast in July, and Christmas lunch for example.

(I served it thousands of times on these occasions when I worked for a renown local, now shut down, fish restaurant).

Originally, though, saor was a humble way to preserve fish onboard, while sailors were out at sea.

Basic ingredients are required: onions, vinegar, fish, salt and pepper. The richer version includes raisins and pine nuts, and I like to use laurel and cloves, too.

The raisin+pine nuts combo is a popular one in Venice, we use it for both sweet and savory dishes like saor and carnival frittelle.

I doubt there's one standard way to make saor… truth is, there are probably as many saor recipes out there as there are households on the islands and mainland of Venice. The old recipe book that I’m translating², lists at least three methods: a “classic” version, a variant of it, and the “old fashion” from the neighbouring town of Treviso.

Below, I'm sharing the “classic” version with sardines. My own vegetarian take with radicchio follows suit.

Sardines “in saor” (classic recipe)

Original title: Sardele in «saor» (ricetta classica) - from A Tola Co I Nostri Veci La Cucina Veneziana by Mariù Salvatori De Zuliani

“Clean 1 Kg of large sardines; behead, flour and fry them in oil until they’re half done. On the side, lightly fry plenty of onions, that you’ll have cut into thin slices, using the remaining oil from the fish (the onion must abound because, afterwards, you’ll need enough of it to cover all of the sardines to keep them “in saor”); when the onions are golden, pour over them 1/2 litre of white wine vinegar and 1/4 white wine. Add also 30 gr of pine nuts, 30 gr of raisins, salt and pepper. When the mixture starts boiling, tip it onto the half-done sardines (which you’ll have laid into a wide and shallow casserole) and put it all back on the fire for a few minutes, until the sardines are done. Sardines “in saor” are to be eaten cold, the day after they are made. Sardines in saor, and soles in saor, too, make for a dish that Venetians bring with them on their boats for the dinner of the “Redentor” night. And remember that, it is customary in Venice to add raisins and pine nuts to saor only in winter, to raise the calorie content. In summer, instead, this is not needed!”

3 tips for better saor

Creating my own version of saor makes me so proud. I wasn't born here, and I don't bring my family's recipes with me. So, creating a little home cooking repertoire has a special meaning to me.

Cooking from old recipes, however, is not always idyllic. If you know what you’re after and know how to work your ingredients accordingly, then a little pottering around will suffice to recreate the perfect taste. But if you don't… call a friend who does.

Here are the 3 lessons I’ve learnt in my journey with saor:

1. Saor is a two-part thing, and you have to nail them both for good results. 1) Master the base preparation, what we call the “saor” itself, and make certain you 2) choose the correct cooking method for the main ingredient that will be covered with the base preparation, saor. As a rule of thumb, I’d say a) use onions and the main ingredient in equal amounts (1:1 ratio, weighed raw); b) when in doubt, use more onions than needed; c) never let the onions burn; d) adjust the level of sourness as you go, by either adding vinegar, white wine or water while the onions are stewing.

2. Ingredient quality. The quality of the produce ought to be outstanding. This is a very simple recipe (not simplistic, though, as someone I know would say). The lack of elaboration dictates that the taste of the ingredients be wonderful. Precisely it needs to veer towards the sweeter side. A sweet pumpkin, a tender eggplant. Definitely don't go for the bitter type of radicchio, the tardivo is better for the job. And the onions must be white and round. Vinegar should be high quality, too.

3. Know how to prepare your ingredients. It wasn’t easy to find the right way to sub sardines with radicchio. The recipe above, the one I translated, provides guidance and inspiration only to a certain degree. Too stubborn to ask for help, I just couldn’t get the consistency of the radicchio right. I fried it in different ways, but nothing, it was mushy and I hated it. Eventually, I picked up the phone and called an old friend of mine, born and bred in Veneto and a former chef, too. His reply was simple: “cook it in the oven, very shortly, 10 minutes will do. The rawness will be gone but they'll stay crunchy.” Then he added “The fish needs frying, but each vegetable requires its own technique.” To make a stellar saor you need to know your main ingredient intimately. You have to be able to cook it so that it holds its shape and the sweetness is enhanced. Fried, steamed, baked... that's a choice that is up to you to make. Make the right one.

Radicchio “in saor”

Goes well with good white wine, good bread, good friends. Enough for three.

Ingredients

• 300 gr of radicchio tardivo di Treviso

• 300 gr of white onions

• 90 ml good quality white wine vinegar (or more, depending on your taste)

• 30 ml extra virgin olive oil + some for baking the radicchio

• 1 bay leaf and 4 cloves

• handful of raisins

• handful of pine nuts

• pinch of salt

• twist of pepper

Method

1. Prepare the radicchio: quarter the radicchio tardivo by keeping intact a bit of the fibrous base so the leaves will stay together. Wash it, pat it dry, and bake for no longer than 10 min, 200°C, with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper. The radicchio will lose its bright colour but maintain a certain bite to it. It will also decrease in volume. When ready and cooled down, move it to a smaller container so it’ll be easier to cover with the saor, afterwards.

2. Prepare the saor: Slice the white onions thinly and cook them with a bay leaf and the cloves in a wide heavy pan with olive oil on medium-low heat until soft, sweet and golden. Don’t burn them. Indicatively, you’ll need the same weight of raw onions as the main raw ingredient (1:1).

3. Add the white wine vinegar and stew with the lid on, on low heat, until fully cooked (I use infused vinegar that I make following an old Venetian method). Add water, white wine and/or vinegar if needed: the onions shouldn't be too dry, a little juice is welcome. Do not burn it and don’t overdo it with the vinegar without taste testing first.

4. Combine radicchio & saor: When the onions are ready, adjust with salt and pepper and mix in a handful of raisins. I like to add the raisins to the radicchio so they can soak in some of the juices, while I sprinkle the pine nuts all over the baked radicchio so I know they’re nicely distributed. Spoon the saor over the radicchio, push some in between the curvy leaves and quarters, and make sure the radicchio is all nice and covered by a blanket of vinegary onions.

5. Let rest for 12 hours at room temperature, before serving. Do not heat.

1. In this newsletter I explain how to infuse vinegar the Venetian way. You'll obtain a fragrant condiment that will add depth and flavour to the most bland salad, perfect for making saor, too.

2. A Tola Co I Nostri Veci: Book from the 1970s collecting traditional recipes from Venice and the Veneto region. Everyone knows it, no one cooks from it. It’s written in the local dialect and there is no Italian nor English version available to date (as far as I know). I wrote more about it here.