Venetian polenta e schie: the traditional recipe with grey lagoon shrimp and soft polenta. 35 minutes of preparation.
Introduction
Polenta e schie is a dish from the Venetian lagoon born out of need: yellow maize polenta — the grain that fed the poor families of the Veneto — and the grey shrimp that were caught by the handful in the salt marshes. Schie are tiny, you eat them whole, and they have a sweet, delicate taste that oil and garlic accompany without covering.
The recipe is elementary: soft, almost runny polenta and schie sautéed in a pan with extra virgin olive oil, garlic and parsley. You eat it hot, stirring the polenta together with the shrimp and their dressing, and the flavour is all there — the sweetness of the maize, the salinity of the lagoon, and the fat of the oil that binds the two.
Fresh schie are found only in the Venetian lagoon and nearby, and only in the cold months. We at Vaigustando.it dress them with an extra virgin olive oil DOP Veneto del Grappa, which does not cover the delicate taste of the shrimp, and we drink them with a col fondo from Marzemina Bianca — the Sampà by Firmino Miotti, refermented in the bottle on its lees, which with polenta and lagoon seafood makes a pairing that means something.
Why Polenta e Schie Is a Dish of the Lagoon
The story begins with geography: schie — Palaemon serratus in Latin, grey shrimp in English — live in the salt marshes of the Venetian lagoon, shallow brackish flats that flood with the tide. They are so small that you eat them whole, shell and all, and they have a sweet, delicate taste that has always sold for its weight in gold in the markets of Venice.
Polenta, on the other hand, is the opposite: the poor dish par excellence, the one that fed farming and fishing families when bread cost too much. Yellow maize, water and salt, cooked slowly in a copper pot until creamy. Putting the two together — a precious ingredient and a subsistence one — is the logic of lagoon cooking: what the sea gives you eat with what you have in the larder, and nothing is thrown away.
The result is a dish with the sweetness of polenta and the salinity of the schie, bound by oil and garlic. You eat it hot, stirring everything together on the plate, and the flavour is clean, simple, with no sauce or seasoning to cover the taste of the shrimp.
Ingredients
For the polenta
- Maize flour for polenta (bramata or fioretto)250 g
- Water1 litre
- Fine salt1 tsp
For the schie
- Fresh schie (grey lagoon shrimp)500 g
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil Veneto del Grappa DOP 500 ml80 ml
- Garlic2 cloves
- Fresh parsley1 bunch
- Fine saltas needed
- Freshly ground black pepperas needed
Nutritional Values per Serving
Values calculated from the recipe's ingredients using the CREA food composition tables, and from the labels of our products where available. They are an estimate per serving, not a laboratory analysis.
Equipment Needed
- Copper pot or tall heavy-bottomed pan
- Whisk or wooden spoon
- Wide pan for the schie
- Bowl for washing the schie
Tip: A copper pot holds the heat evenly and the polenta does not stick; if you do not have one a tall heavy-bottomed pan works, but you will need to stir more often.
How to Make Polenta e schie
Make the polenta
Bring a litre of water to the boil in a copper pot or a tall heavy-bottomed pan and add the salt. Once it boils, rain in the maize flour with one hand while stirring with the other using a whisk or a wooden spoon, to avoid lumps. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and cook the polenta stirring often for 40-45 minutes, until it comes away from the sides of the pot and has a soft, creamy consistency, almost runny. If it thickens too much, add a ladle of hot water.
Chef's tip: The polenta for schie must be soft, not firm: if a spoon stands up in it, it is too stiff. It should flow slowly off the ladle.
Wash and dry the schie
While the polenta cooks, wash the fresh schie under cold running water, drain them well and dry them on a clean tea towel or with kitchen paper. They must be properly dry, otherwise they release water in the pan and boil instead of frying.
Sauté the schie
In a wide pan heat the extra virgin olive oil with the two crushed garlic cloves. When the garlic starts to turn golden, remove it and tip in the schie. Sauté over high heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon, until they turn pink and smell of the sea. Salt, pepper, add the finely chopped parsley, stir and take off the heat.
Chef's tip: Schie cook in a few minutes: keep them in the pan too long and they dry out and lose their sweetness. They should stay tender.
Serve at once
Pour the soft, still boiling polenta into deep plates, spread the schie with their flavoured oil on top, and serve immediately. You mix it on the plate, stirring polenta and schie together. Eat it very hot: if the polenta cools it sets and loses its creaminess.
Wine Pairing for Polenta e Schie
Soft polenta and grey lagoon shrimp sautéed in a pan: a dish made of sweetness, salinity and fat in precise proportions. The wine works on three fronts here — it cuts the polenta and the oil without covering the delicate taste of the schie, it stands up to the salinity of the seafood without adding to it, and it keeps pace with the butteriness of the maize without weighing things down. It needs acidity, freshness and a bubble to act as counterpoint. It does not need tannin, which on a dish of sea and flour leaves bitterness behind. And it does not need high alcohol: above 12 degrees the alcoholic warmth covers the schie instead of accompanying them.
Recommended Sparkling Wine
Sampà Rifermentato in bottiglia — Firmino Miotti — The Sampà is a col fondo from Marzemina Bianca, refermented in the bottle on its lees and with no added sulphites at all. It brings exactly the three things the dish asks for: the delicate bubble that cuts the polenta with every sip, a note of bread crust that echoes the maize toasted on the surface, and a mineral salinity that keeps pace with the schie without adding to them. The lively acidity cleans the palate without attacking the shrimp, which is sweet and delicate by nature. Marzemina Bianca is an old Veneto grape, and its scent of wisteria and lily finds in the lagoon a pairing that makes sense — not by reasoning but by belonging. Serve it at 8-10 °C, poured slowly leaving the sediment in the bottle if you prefer a cleaner sip, or roused if you want more volume and salinity.
Want to learn more? our guide to col fondo
If You Prefer a Still Wine
Breganze DOC Vespaiolo — Firmino Miotti — It is the same winemaker as the Sampà, and that is worth saying rather than hiding: whoever makes that col fondo also makes the still version, from the same hillside. Vespaiola is a historic grape of the Vicenza hills, loved by the Venetians and already praised in 1610 — on a lagoon dish it arrives before any reasoning does. What counts here is that it sits at exactly 12 degrees: above that, alcoholic warmth would cover the schie, the most delicate thing on the plate. The volcanic hills of Santa Lucia give it the salinity that keeps pace with the shrimp without adding to its salt, and the nervy acidity of Vespaiola cuts through the 80 ml of oil from the pan. The difference from the Sampà is in the ageing: 40% rests in acacia barriques with bâtonnage, and from there comes a roundness that the polenta asks for — maize is soft and buttery, and a white made of nothing but nerve would walk straight past it. Acacia is not oak: it gives texture, not vanilla, and on seafood you do not taste it. Serve it at 10-12 °C, a little less cold than the col fondo.
Craft Beer as an Alternative
Witty Weizen — wheat beer, Norah's Farm — The Weizen is the alternative if the wine's bubble does not convince you. The wheat gives a soft structure that wraps the polenta without weighing it down, and the beer's firmer carbonation does a precise mechanical job — it cuts the maize and cleans the palate mouthful after mouthful. The banana and clove note typical of the style accompanies the sweetness of the schie without covering it, while the tart edge picks up the oil and garlic from the pan without leaving a trace. The bitterness is restrained, and that is the point: a hoppy beer here would leave a metallic aftertaste that makes no sense on a dish this delicate. Serve it at 6-8 °C, in a tall glass that lets it build its head.
Want to know more about the style? wheat beers
What to Serve Them With
Polenta e schie is eaten on its own, with no side dishes. It is a complete course, and in the Venetian tradition it closes the meal — it does not open it.
If you want to stretch the meal out, you can serve a cicchetto of baccalà mantecato on toasted bread first, or some sarde in saor, with a glass of cold col fondo. But after the polenta nothing else is needed.
Variations
- With tomato: some versions add a spoonful of tomato passata to the schie. It is good but less traditional, and the tomato covers the sweetness of the shrimp.
- With white wine: some deglaze the schie with a glass of dry white wine before adding the parsley. It gives the dressing more depth.
- With frozen grey shrimp: if fresh schie are not available, you can use frozen grey shrimp (unpeeled). The taste is less sweet but the dish holds up.
- White polenta: in the upper Veneto it is made with white polenta from Biancoperla maize. More delicate, less sweet, more refined.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are schie available all year round?
No, fresh schie are caught only in the cold months, from October to March. In the warm months you will find them only frozen.
Can the schie be replaced?
Yes, with unpeeled grey shrimp. The taste is less sweet and less delicate, but the dish works. Avoid peeled shrimp: they dry out in the pan and have no flavour.
Can the polenta be made ahead?
No, the polenta must be served straight away, boiling hot and soft. If it cools it sets and the dish is no longer the same. This is a dish to make and eat on the spot.
How thick should the polenta be?
Soft, almost runny. If a spoon stands up in it, it is too stiff: it should flow slowly off the ladle, like a thick cream. The right consistency is the one that mixes easily with the schie.
