A Celebration-Worthy Feast of the Seven Fishes Menu
- Frico. ...
- Buttery Garlic Crab Bruschetta. ...
- Fried Calamari (Calamari Fritti) Calamari are small squid, and when they are served battered and fried, they are one of the most classic Italian summer seafood dishes.
- Easy Butter and Herb Baked Oysters. ...
- Acciughe Marinate alla Ligure (Marinated Anchovies)
- Brodetto di Branzino (Wild Sea Bass Soup)
- Crudo di Pesce (Fish Tartare)
- Paccheri con Sugo di Mare (Seafood Pasta)
- Pesce al Forno (Baked Fish)
- Pesce alla Griglia (Grilled Fish)
How to achieve stellar Feast of Seven Fishes?
We’ve listed seven popular Christmas Eve fish preparations below:
- Baccala’ – this salt cod can be served many ways, we suggest baccala’ mantecato.
- Fried Calamari (crispy squid…always a crowd pleaser!)
- Linguine with Clam Sauce (red or white)
- Zuppa di Pesce – a delicious seafood stew made from a variety of fishes.
- Scungilli Salad – preparations vary, but it’s always nice with some celery and black olives.
What are the seven fish for Christmas Eve?
Popular dishes
- Baccalà with pasta, as a salad, or fried
- Baked cod
- Clams casino
- Cod fish balls in tomato sauce
- dolphinfish
- Deep fried calamari
- Deep fried cod
- Deep fried fish/ shrimp
- Deep fried scallops
- Fried smelts
What is the night of the Seven Fishes?
The Feast of Seven Fishes, an Italian tradition, is celebrated on Christmas Eve each year. In Italy, the meal is known as Festa Dei Sette Pesci, or, more simply, La Vigilia. The tradition is one of abstinence; Catholics historically refrained from eating meat on the night before the Christmas holiday, so this was a way for Italians to still honor the occasion without breaking their vows.
What are the Seven Fishes of Christmas Eve?
Menu planning:
- It’s okay to serve small “tasting-size” portions of each dish. ...
- Plan for two or three courses to be cold or room temperature: there aren’t enough burners on the stove for seven.
- You don’t need a ton of side dishes; many of the fish dishes have one built in.
What are the 7 traditional fishes Christmas Eve Italian?
This pasta involves seven fish: clams, mussels, halibut, shrimp, anchovy, calamari and scallops. It's nice to have a whole fish, head and tail included, to signify abundance.
What does the 7 Fishes on Christmas Eve mean?
While the modern tradition is to eat seven fishes, the actual reason behind the number seven is not completely clear. Some believe the number seven represents the days in a week, the seven sacraments, or the seven deadly sins.
What is the traditional Italian Christmas Eve meal?
In Italy, Christmas Eve dinner is traditionally lighter with no meat and a lot of seafood, while the Italian-American meal has evolved into much more of a feast. Bring on the sword fish, tuna, salmon, octopus salad, smelts, calamari, spaghetti with clam sauce and the famous Italian classic—salted cod, known as baccalà.
How do you prepare the Feast of the Seven Fishes?
Now, onto the business at hand:First Course: Something Snacky. ... Second Course: A Bracing, Light Salad. ... Third Course: Something Hearty, Grilled, Seared, and 'Meaty' ... Fourth Course: Pasta! ... Fifth Course: A Hearty Seafood Stew. ... Sixth Course: The Palate Cleanser. ... Seventh Course: Cookies, Cannoli, or a Light(ish) Dessert.
Is the Feast of Seven Fishes Catholic?
Christmas Eve's Feast of the Seven Fishes is, by Italian Catholic tradition, supposed to be a penitential meal, and it may be, depending on your view of eel, smelt, anchovies and snails.
What is a traditional Sicilian Christmas dinner?
Feast of the Seven Fishes, also known as La Vigilia (The Vigil), is a Sicilian-American traditional dinner on Christmas Eve. Like many Italian traditions, the origin and rules are debated.
What do Italian Catholics eat Christmas Eve?
fishChristmas Eve being one of the designated days on which to abstain, most good Catholics would eat fish, typically cooked in oil....Italian Catholics typically ate one of several different fish on this day, including:Baccala.Cod fish balls.Fried smelts.Fried calamari.Marinated eel.Fried cod.Fried shrimp.
What do Spanish eat for Christmas dinner?
The Top 10 Spanish Traditional Christmas FoodsEntremeses. Entremeses are like an appetiser plate, and are often served at the start of the Christmas or Christmas Eve meal. ... Seafood. ... Cochinillo Asado. ... Lamb. ... Galets. ... Turrón. ... Polvorónes and Mantecados. ... Roscón de Reyes.More items...•
What is the feast of the seven fish?
Each holiday season, many Italian-American families enjoy a Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. As its name suggests, the lavish, multi-course meal features a variety of fish and shellfish, served as appetizers, entrees, and pasta dishes. Whether you're Italian or simply go wild for seafood, get inspired to host an unforgettable holiday ...
What is the traditional Christmas Eve dish?
Oyster stew is a traditional Christmas Eve dish that many families look forward to enjoying all year long. This creamy version includes thawed frozen hash brown potatoes, onion, and red bell pepper, and cooks all afternoon in your crock pot, leaving your stove and oven free for preparing other dishes. 02 of 34.
What is a good side dish to serve with seafood entrees?
Vegetables are a classic side dish for seafood entrees and this gratin is a decadent way to get those greens. Broccoli, spinach, and zucchini are cooked in a simple white sauce with a hint of poultry seasoning to lift the flavor. The casserole is finished with a wonderfully crunchy, cheesy browned breadcrumb topping.
What is a good main dish for a holiday?
A baked seafood casserole makes an excellent main dish for when you don't want to linger over the stove. Wow holiday guests when you serve this easy, sophisticated dish brimming with succulent lobster, shrimp, and crab. The seafood is smothered in a sherry -spiked white sauce and broiled at the end to form a beautiful golden crust.
What to do with a whole fish?
Roasting a whole fish is a surefire way to impress holiday dinner guests. With this recipe and just a little olive oil or lemon juice, plus some fresh herb sprigs, you can dine Roman-style on whole branzini, haddock, or whatever other firm-fleshed fish is available and looks good from your local monger.
What is fennel salad?
It's a popular ingredient in Italy, where it is called finocchio. In this elegant, refreshing first course salad, fennel combines beautifully with grapefruit slices, arugula, and creamy avocado, dressed only in a scant drizzle of olive oil.
Cozze al Forno
Calling for just 15 minutes of prep time, "these mussels are loaded up with flavorful ingredients, and get golden-brown and crispy in the oven for a perfect appetizer," she says.
Calamari Panzanella
Panzanella isn't just for summer, De Laurentiis believes. This creative twist features toasted bread, tomatoes, olives, arugula, basil and your choice of octopus or squid.
Pan-Fried Zucchini
Take a break from the seafood with "this vibrant side dish [that] gets tons of flavor from an anchovy and caper dressing." According to De Laurentiis, the 20-minute recipe is "about as southern Italian as it gets!"
Frutti di Mare
After De Laurentiis posted a close-up shot of a pan full of this "seafood-abundant pasta" that, translated from Italian, means "fruit of the sea," several fans hopped into the comments to call it, "my favorite!!💕💕💕" It's a staple on many Capri restaurant menus, De Laurentiis confirms, and her DIY version uses a bit of "homemade chili oil to give it some great heat throughout.".
Acqua Pazza
"Crazy water" is the translation of this recipe name, which refers to the punchy spices and mix-ins (crushed red pepper flakes, capers, garlic and fennel) that spike the tomato-and-white-wine broth used to poach the sea bass. "My version isn't insanely spicy, but it's full of Italian flavor," she says.
Torta Caprese
A fan describes this decadent chocolate torte as "hands-down favorite dessert recipe! Not too sweet, but just sweet enough. It's gluten-free by default too, but you'd never know it!" De Laurentiis agrees, noting that it is "a quintessential dessert in Capri, and one of the dishes you can't miss when you vacation there.
What are the seven fishes eaten on Christmas Eve?
There aren’t seven specific fishes to be eaten on Christmas Eve, but rather that you should have a total of seven different fishes.
What does a traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner menu look like?
Typically, we start with cold shrimp cocktail (in these adorable fishy mini-appetizer dishes ), then go to soup and pasta (see the ah-leege reference below). Then it’s like the ocean exploded and the other 4 fishes come out at the same time.
What to put on your Feast of the Seven Fishes menu
Like I said, we don’t have any hard and fast rules of what to put on our feast of the seven fishes menu.
What Is Feast of the Seven Fishes?
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian-American Christmas Eve celebration that brings families together the same way Thanksgiving does with traditions that span generations, decades and oceans.
The History of the Feast of the Seven Fishes
Why do Italian Americans celebrate Christmas Eve with a feast like no other? Politics, poverty and family traditions all play into the tradition. Before 1861, the geographic area that’s now Italy was a group of regions, each with its own government.
How to Cook the Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve Dinner
The strictest adherents to the seven-fishes tradition will tell you that indeed there should be seven fish on the dinner table, but for the sake of simplicity, consider any and all seafood, including shellfish, to count toward your final fish tally.
What is the feast of the seven fish?
Create a Feast of the Seven Fishes menu that wouldn't drive a person to the brink of insanity. The Christmas Eve feast is an Italian and Italian-American tradition, celebrated differently in seemingly every family that hosts. But it all comes down to the fish.
Can you put shellfish and pasta together?
If you don’t have a large enough pot to toss all the shellfish and pasta together, you can always transfer everything to the largest bowl or platter you have, or go old-school and just pour the sauce over the pasta at the table. Watch how to make it here. View Recipe.
An Italian-American Christmas Eve celebration where seafood is the star
Yasmine is an Associate Editor at Serious Eats. Her work has been featured in Women’s Health and on L’Officiel USA, and she recently graduated from New York University with a master's in journalism. You can find her at Bleecker Street Pizza on any given weekend.
The Serious Eats Feast of the Seven Fishes
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a celebration with very few rules, aside from the fact that you're feasting on fishes. While there are some popular Italian-American dishes like lobster fra diavolo frequently on the table, the menu really is up to you.
Baccalà
Though both of the salt cod dishes Serious Eats created for this celebration (Filetti di Baccalà and Baccalà alla Napoletana) could technically fit into the above or below categories, the fish is such a staple at this meal that it gets its own.
Cozze Al Forno
These mussels are loaded up with flavorful ingredients, and get golden-brown and crispy in the oven for a perfect appetizer!
Calamari Panzanella
This colorful bread and seafood salad is a coastal staple in Italy, made either with octopus or squid.
Pan-Fried Zucchini
This vibrant side-dish gets tons of flavor from an anchovy and caper dressing – it’s about as southern Italian as it gets!
Frutti Di Mare
A translation of “fruit of the sea,” this seafood-abundant pasta is a classic dish you’ll find in any restaurant in Capri.
Acqua Pazza
Acqua Pazza translates to “crazy water,” referring to the bold and flavorful spices in the sauce!
Torta Caprese
The most fitting end to any Capri meal: the rich, decadent, chocolatey Torta Caprese.
