Food, Drinks & Traditional Dishes in Verona

This rich, intensely flavoured stew is the undisputed king of traditional Veronese cuisine, boasting a history that dates back to a bloody battle in 489 AD. The meat is marinated for days in robust local red wine, onions, and a blend of spices, before being slow cooked until it falls apart. The resulting dish has a deep, slightly sweet and earthy profile that is incredibly satisfying during the colder months. It is almost exclusively served alongside a generous portion of creamy, soft polenta to soak up the dark sauce. While the idea of eating horse might be unfamiliar to some visitors, it remains deeply embedded in local culinary culture.

A luxurious and vibrant dish that beautifully showcases the city's most famous and expensive wine export. The risotto is prepared using locally grown Vialone Nano rice, known for its ability to absorb immense amounts of liquid while maintaining a firm bite. The powerful, rich Amarone wine is slowly incorporated, turning the rice a striking, deep purple colour. It is finished with a generous shaving of aged Monte Veronese cheese, creating a perfect balance of deep fruit flavours and sharp, salty dairy. It is a deeply comforting, elegant dish that tastes exactly like the surrounding landscape.

This incredibly unique, thick sauce is a cornerstone of traditional Sunday lunches in the city, almost never found outside the province. It is made by slow cooking bone marrow, beef broth, grated stale bread, and a massive, tongue tingling amount of black pepper. The result is a creamy, warming, and highly robust condiment that perfectly cuts through the richness of boiled meats (bollito misto). The name itself simply means 'peppered' in the local dialect. It is true peasant food elevated to a cherished cultural institution, offering a deeply comforting taste of local home cooking.

A rustic, robust pasta dish with deep roots in the broader Venetian tradition, perfectly adapted by local taverns. Bigoli is a type of thick, rough textured spaghetti, traditionally extruded through a brass press, which allows it to hold onto thick sauces exceptionally well. The sauce is a simple but intensely flavoured reduction of onions, olive oil, and preserved sardines or anchovies. It provides a salty, briny kick that pairs wonderfully with the crisp, dry white wines produced in the nearby hills. It is a staple of modest osterias and represents the historical reliance on preserved fish in landlocked regions.

Alongside Milan's Panettone, this is the quintessential Italian Christmas cake, but it originated right here in the late 19th century. The name translates to 'golden bread', referring to its rich, yellow colour derived from an abundance of eggs and butter. It is baked in an eight pointed star shaped mould and is traditionally served simply dusted with icing sugar to resemble the snowy peaks of the Alps. Unlike Panettone, it contains no candied fruits or raisins, resulting in an incredibly soft, buttery, and melt in the mouth texture. While available nationwide during the holidays, purchasing a freshly baked artisanal version from a historic local bakery is a completely different experience.