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Fegato alla Veneziana

By John, 30 June, 2022
Region
Italy
Description

"Venetian Liver and Onions"It took an awfully long time for me to find a recipe for a calve's liver dish that I liked. As was the case with many of us, my mom made it from time to time, a big slab of strange-looking, strange-smelling, strangely-textured strangeness that nobody wanted to eat. But this one I liked a lot, and I and my friend Andy both took additional helpings. 

I had to try this recipe because it's a Venetian classic, and how could it become a classic if it were at all like what my mom made? 

The differences in this dish are twofold, one part of the recipe and the other was the liver itself. 

"Venetian Liver and Onions"I decided a long time ago that I did not trust liver from cattle raised on factory farms fed who knows what feed and drugs, because all of that ultimately is processed by the liver. I found some Caldwell Farms calf liver at the Belfast Coop in Belfast, Maine. I knew it was going to be as good a piece of liver as I am likely to find, so I bought it for this recipe.

The recipe insists that the liver be sliced very thinly before cooking. Andy and I agreed that this was a major improvement, getting past the worst of the texture strangeness, ensuring all of it was cooked through but not overdone, and enabling tastes of the liver to go along with the onions in a pleasing way. I will make this again, when I can get the good liver.

Yield
2 Servings
Preparation time
40 minutes
Cooking time
10 minutes
Total time
50 minutes
Ingredients
2 T Butter
1 yellow onion (large)
8 oz calf's liver (organic)
Instructions
  1. Melt the butter in a skillet over moderate heat.
  2. Slice the onions thinly and cook in the butter until golden and very soft, maybe 20 minutes.
  3. While the onions cook, slice the liver very thinly. 
  4. When the onions are soft and near caramelization, push them to one side of the pan and add the liver. Stir-fry it a little until it is cooked a little all over, then stir the liver into the onions, reduce heat, and let simmer until cooked through, about 5 minutes more.
  5. Serve hot with a soft polenta.
Notes

I researched a few recipes before coming up with this one, and then I was fortunate enough to try it at a couple of good restaurants in Venice and Verona to be sure that what I describe is like the Venetian version - it is! The key to this is to slice the liver thinly so it cooks up quickly and evenly, and to finish the flavoring with a final brief simmer with the onions, but not a long-term stewing.

Book traversal links for Fegato alla Veneziana

  • Dexter's Chicken Liver Pate
  • Up
  • Haggis

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