Venetian Raisin and Polenta Cookies

When I was teaching and living in Bologna, the baker Margherita Simili, who was assisting me at the school, showed me how to make a Bolognese polenta cookie called zalett, which she explained meant “little yellow ones” in the dialect of Bologna. I included the recipe in one of my earlier books.

When I came to live in Venice and, like everyone else in the city, spent a good part of the day walking, every time I looked in a baker’s shop I saw trays of cookies i