A Favorite Recipe of Hemingway’s: Fegato alla Veneziana

Fegato alla Veneziana is a fried calf’s liver recipe that is probably one of the best known dishes of La Serenisima, together with risi e bisi (rice and peas). Walk around Venice, and you’ll see it on most restaurant menus, from lowly bacari to high-end luxury hotel restaurants.

One place still cooks the definitive Fegato alla Veneziana – the famous Harry’s Bar, which was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite watering hole where he had his very own reserved table while working on his novel, Across the River and Into the Trees, in Venice.

If you are a Hemingway aficionado, chase the Fegato with a high quality Amarone della Valpolicella Classico. He loved to drink bottles of Amarone while in Venice as he worked on revisions of his book in the winter of 1950.

Across the River and Into the Trees was his first book after the publication of his Spanish War novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1940. The novel was first serialized in five installments in Cosmopolitan magazine early in 1950.

Below is Giuseppe Cipriani’s original recipe I received during a trip to Venice in 2015.

Ingredients:

2 lbs. calf’s liver, trimmed with the thin membrane peeled off
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided into 3 and 2 tablespoons
6 small yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 bunch parsley, trimmed and chopped
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste (coarse sea salt and Malabar Black pepper is considered the best combination)

Method:

With a sharp knife, cut the liver into four long pieces with the grain. Then, slice each piece crosswise into smaller pieces.

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.

Add the onions, and cook, stirring frequently until soft and golden brown. Make sure you don’t burn the onions. Remove them with a slotted spoon, and set aside.

Increase the heat to medium-high, and add the remaining oil. When it is sizzling hot, add the liver, and cook, preferably in batches to avoid overcrowding the skillet. Continue until the liver is brown and crispy on the edges, 4-5 minutes each batch.

Season liberally with salt and pepper, and add the reserved onions and accumulated juices. Cook for another 2 minutes, stirring and turning the liver and onions constantly while shaking the skillet over the heat. Transfer to a warm serving platter.  

Add butter to the skillet, and deglaze as the butter is melting. Remove the skillet from the heat and stir in the parsley. Spoon the mixture over the liver and onions, and serve with grilled polenta.

A heavy cast-iron skillet works best for electric stovetops.