Cipriani Food, Pasta and Delicatessen from Harry's Bar Venice
Cipriani Food is the delicatessen line from the Cipriani family, which began in 1931 with Harry's Bar in Venice. Giuseppe Cipriani and later his son Arrigo transformed a small bar in Piazza San Marco into a range of pasta, sauces, Bellinis, and pastries that brings the same cuisine into your own home.
Cipriani Food is the delicatessen line from Harry's Bar in Venice, founded by Giuseppe Cipriani in 1931 and still family-owned today. Over four generations, a single bar in Piazza San Marco has grown into an assortment of pasta, pasta sauces, Bellinis, and pastries that brings the cuisine of the legendary restaurant to your own home.
1931, a small bar in Piazza San Marco
Giuseppe Cipriani opened Harry's Bar in 1931 in a narrow alley near Piazza San Marco in Venice, with simple ingredients and a cuisine that eschewed additives.
Just one year later, in 1932, the Biennale launched its first film festival in Venice – from then on, Harry's Bar was a permanent fixture on the itineraries of visiting stars.
Thanks to the film festival, the bar quickly became a meeting point for big names: Ernest Hemingway was among the regulars, and Humphrey Bogart and Alfred Hitchcock also stopped by whenever they were in Venice.
His son Arrigo Cipriani later continued the kitchen and formulated the establishment's philosophy in one sentence: "Fewer ingredients, better quality."
Over four generations, the single bar grew into an international company with several hotels, but the delicatessen line remained the direct way to bring Harry's Bar recipes to the table outside of Venice.
To this day, the company headquarters is at the same address near Piazza San Marco, just a few steps from the waters of the Grand Canal, where Giuseppe Cipriani once began.
What set the little bar apart from the start was less its location than the attitude behind it: a minimalist cuisine, served with friendliness, without copying the pretentions of the large Venetian restaurants.
Pasta, sauces, Bellini, and pastries from one kitchen
Four product groups form the Cipriani range: durum wheat and egg pasta, pasta sauces and oils, alcoholic and non-alcoholic Bellini variants, and pastries for holidays.
In the organic durum wheat pasta range, in addition to spaghetti, there is a choice of penne, fusilli, and rigatoni, all four from the same Apulian harvest and pressed through bronze dies.
The egg pasta covers a broader spectrum: from wide pappardelle to narrow tagliolini to the green spinach varieties of tagliarelle, tagliardi, and tagliolini.
For pasta, classics like Organic Spaghetti from Apulian durum wheat stand alongside egg-based pasta such as the Tagliolini all'uovo, both pressed through bronze dies and dried slowly.
The sauces include the Sansovina Pasta Sauce as well as the Basil Pesto, in addition to the Carnaroli Risotto Rice for a creamy side dish.
The Bellini Original Cocktail brings Venice's most famous aperitif directly into the glass, with non-alcoholic variants also available.
For culinary staples, a mild extra virgin olive oil and a balanced red wine vinegar supplement the range, both intended for daily cooking, not just for special occasions.
Two further tomato sauces, the Pomod'oro Pasta Sauce and the strained Tomato Passata, round off the selection of sauces alongside the Sansovina, each with its own consistency and use case. Those who like to compare will find three different takes on the same tomato in these three sauces.
For holidays, the Biscotti dell'Harry's Bar and two Panettone varieties complement the assortment, all made according to the same Harry's Bar recipes.
Those looking for specific items will find the complete ranges in the subcategories Cipriani Durum Wheat Pasta, Cipriani Egg Pasta, Cipriani Delicatessen, Cipriani Aperitivo & Drinks, and Cipriani Pastries.
Few ingredients, much handwork, one family
Apulian durum wheat, pressed through bronze dies and dried at low temperatures, forms the basis of almost all Cipriani pasta, selected by Arrigo Cipriani personally.
The sweets deliberately avoid candied fruits and quick leavening agents: natural yeast instead of chemical leavening requires more time but makes Panettone and Biscotti particularly light.
"Simplicity is the most difficult thing there is" – this second principle of Arrigo Cipriani explains why product ingredient lists rarely include more than five or six items.
The entire range continues to be manufactured in small family businesses according to the Harry's Bar recipes, using traditional craft methods rather than industrial ones, batch by batch.
For the pasta, the Apulian durum wheat remains a constant across all varieties, whether as a long ribbon noodle or a square tagliardi piece, with every shape pressed through the same bronze die.
The same principle applies to the sauces: tomatoes, basil, oil, and salt are usually sufficient; you won't find elaborate lists of additives in any Cipriani product.
For the red wine vinegar, the Cabernet grapes come from the Veneto, the same region where Venice is located – a deliberate choice that underscores the regional connection to the restaurant's cuisine.
Inventors of Carpaccio and Bellini
The true accolade of Cipriani Food is not a medal, but two dishes that are now on menus worldwide: in 1950, Giuseppe Cipriani invented Carpaccio for Contessa Amalia Nani Mocenigo, named after the shimmering red and white tones in the paintings of the artist Vittore Carpaccio.
The Bellini followed in 1948, developed for the exhibition of the painter Giovanni Bellini at the Doge's Palace: fruit purée of white peaches topped with Prosecco.
Both creations left Harry's Bar and became international classics, long before the delicatessen line even existed – a legacy that no award could better prove.
Today, Carpaccio is on menus around the world, usually without guests knowing that the name goes back to a single evening at Harry's Bar, when Giuseppe Cipriani prepared raw beef for a guest whose doctor had forbidden her from eating cooked meat.
The Bellini, in turn, still graces every top-tier aperitivo menu, in Venice just as in bars all over the world, often under the same name that Giuseppe Cipriani gave it over seven decades ago.
Bellini for an aperitif, Tagliolini for a quick dinner
For an uncomplicated evening, the Bellini Original Cocktail is a great start, with a bowl of Biscotti alongside for small snacks in between.
During the week, Tagliolini all'uovo with Sansovina pasta sauce makes for a dinner in under 15 minutes, with no hours of cooking required.
As a gift for the holidays, the Panettone is particularly well-suited, hand-wrapped or in the round metal tin, which can be reused after the last piece is gone.
For a small gift set, the Biscotti can be combined with a bottle of red wine vinegar or olive oil – three Cipriani classics from one kitchen in a single bag.
For Sunday brunch, the non-alcoholic Bellini Zero is just as suitable as the original, a nice gesture for guests who want to toast without alcohol during the day.
On a quiet Sunday, Organic Fusilli with Pomod'oro Pasta Sauce makes for a simple but satisfying lunch, ready in less than 20 minutes.
For those who want to discover further Italian artisanal producers, Azienda Guerrieri offers a second Italian pasta tradition, also with its own grain cultivation and bronze dies.
Explore the range; a piece of Harry's Bar can be enjoyed right at your own kitchen table.
