A small crowd milled outside Delfina—the dining room was packed—but peering through the window, I spied a free seat at the bar, and with the host's approval, commandeered it. Scanning the menu, I came across the words Bigoli in Salsa, an old-school Venetian recipe one encounters today only in Venice's few remaining non-touristic restaurants.

A wave of nostalgia overtook me as I recalled a trip some years prior, when, suffering from a bad cold of Veronese origin, I'd found comfort in the dish—an extruded, whole-wheat pasta somewhat fatter than spaghetti, dressed in a robust sauce of onions and anchovies —at Osteria al Mascaron, near Campo Santa Maria Formosa.