Notwithstanding the fact that the modern street carnival of Venice is very well supported by tourists, the Venetians themselves prefer the ancient customs that are quite different to the events celebrated so exuberantly in Piazza San Marco every year. In the days gone by, huge amounts of money was spent on costumes and balls and competition between the various associations was fierce! For Venetians the most important thing about carnival is the food – something for which they were much criticized at one stage. The Catholic Church, especially frowned on gluttony and considered it to be the greatest sin of the citizens of Venice.

At this time of the year, Venice of 1830 looked like a huge fair ground with spits, grilled fish and chicken and stalls featuring a host of delicacies.  Many specialties were reserved for that time of the year and galani (strips of sugary pastry), fritole (small doughnuts), buranelli (from the island of Burano) and of course the well loved castradini (salted, lightly smoked, air dried strips of lamb that were made into a stew) were particular favourites and remain so to this day.

Ingredients

• 270 g yellow cornmeal
• 210 g all-purpose flour
• 100 g sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 165 g unsalted butter, cold
• 200 g seedless raisins
• 2 large eggs
• 1 lemon grated zest only
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• icing sugar for finishing
• grappa – just in case

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 180 C
• Place the cornmeal, the all purpose flour, the sugar, the salt and the baking powder to a large bowl and combine.
• Add the butter and, using the finger tips, incorporate the butter until the mixture has the consistency of breadcrumbs.
• If you are using a food processor, place the dry ingredients in the bowl fitted with metal blade, and pulse, adding the butter (already cut into pieces) and pulse until mixed finely.
• Lightly beat the eggs with the lemon zest and the vanilla extract and add this to the bowl, mixing it  with a spatula to combine – now add the raisins and transfer the crumbly dough onto a lightly floured working surface to knead until smooth – if it is too crumbly, add a little grappa.
• Flatten the dough with a rolling pin until it is about a cm thick, using a cookies shaper cut into  diamond shapes.
• Arrange the zaleti on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, bake for about 15 minutes, until they are light gold brown colour.
• Cool on racks and dust with the icing sugar.