Fisherman's Stew from Zeppoli.
Scungilli and calamari marinara.
Posted on 12/25/2023 12:24:00 AM PST by nickcarraway
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. But for most Italians and Italian-Americans, the feast (also called Il Cenone or La Vigilia) is a call to arms for fish and seafood lovers, a bivalve bacchanalia, a crustacean celebration, a shrimp, squid and scallop saturnalia. But how much do you actually know about the tradition?
Few agree on the reasoning behind the number seven The emphasis on fish comes from the centuries-old rule against eating meat on Friday to honor the sacrifice of Jesus, according to Robert Germano’s 2005 book “The Eve of the Seven Fishes: Christmas Cooking in the Peasant Tradition.” But there’s little agreement on the thinking behind the number. German posits a few theories: the seven Catholic sacraments; the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; the Seven Hills of Rome; or the seven days it took Jesus and Mary to travel to Bethlehem.
Some families go above and beyond the seven Most stick an odd number because they’re considered luckier in Italy, says Janice Mancuso, a writer and publisher of books by Italian-Americans, although some prepare 10 kinds of fish and shellfish for the stations of the cross. There are those who do 9, for the trinity tripled, or 13, for the 12 apostles plus Jesus Christ. And the truly ambitious take on 21 -- that’s the seven sacraments multiplied by the trinity, according to the Oxford Companion to Italian Food.
There’s no agreement which seven fishes must be used Many believe it wouldn’t be La Vigilia without baccala (salt cod), calamari, eel, scungilli (snails), and smelt. Others add whiting and anchovies to the list. But the biggest sellers at Peter’s Fish Market in Midland Park are shrimp and squid. Also popular among today’s cooks: Clams, lobster, salmon, scallops and meaty swordfish, tuna or halibut steaks.
Lou Palma, 84, has been preparing the Feast of the Seven Fishes for 40 years at his Montclair home, although now his sons are starting to take over over the tradition. He wouldn’t dream of a feast without baccala, dried cod that must be soaked “and rinsed and rinsed and rinsed again,” he laughs. He then boils the fish and serves it a salad with olives, vinegar peppers, lemon and olive oil.
In Italy, eel is a major player in the meal The thick, powerfully wriggly capitone, as it is known in Italy, has traditionally been a sign of wealth, writes Katherine Wilson in her new memoir “Only in Naples: Learning to Live and Eat in an Italian Family,” in which she describes a 5-foot-long eel still thrashing after its head was chopped off. (The chunks were variously pickled, fried and served in a tomato sauce.) In America, the only demand for live eel is at Christmas, says Steve Sclafani of Peter’s Fish Market in Midland Park. The market brings in several hundred pounds of live eel for the holiday, bringing in a special refrigerated trailer to store the eel, which can stay alive out of the water for three days if kept at the proper temperature.
Scungilli also gets its moment in the sun during La Vigilia
Scungilli is the chewy sea snail also known as whelk or conch. Italian food doyenne Lidia Bastianich praises its “wonderful texture and flavor,” but the snail has its detractors, among them the travel writer Bill Bryson (“If you have never dined on this marine delicacy, you may get the same experience by finding an old golf ball, removing the cover, and eating what remains.”) The traditional way to serve scungilli, typically available frozen or canned and already tenderized, is boiled and then chilled in a salad with celery, olives, garlic, parsley and red pepper flakes with oil and vinegar.
In Italy, there are certain Christmas dishes associated with certain fish or shellfish In Naples, baccala is served in tomato sauce, while in Basilicata, it is cooked with potato and onions, according to the Oxford Companion. In Lombardy and Piedmont, lasagna is sauced with anchovies, garlic, sage, rosemary, bay leaves, olive oil, butter and Parmesan. The Romans serve spaghetti with anchovies, while in Naples, it’s vermicelli with clams, mussels or razor clams. Smelt is battered and fried, while anchovies are often served as a salad with oranges and hard-boiled eggs.
As for eel, in Venice it is left unskinned and spit-roasted with bay leaves. “They say ... there is something tranquilizing about eel cooked this way, putting even the grumpiest person in a suitably benevolent mood for Christmas.” (Consider this if you expect political disputes to break out over dinner.)
Some cooks prepare a minimum of seven courses
Others are fine combining fishes.
“Any seven fishes that you can come across,” offers Sclafani, “and anyway you gotta to do it.”
Fisherman's Stew from Zeppoli.
Scungilli and calamari marinara.
No such thing as the “Feast Of Seven Fishes” in Italy. It exists only in the US. It’s a great Italian-American tradition though. . .
We do lasagna with homemade meat sauce (beef and Italian sausage), piccata, garlic bread, salad, roasted vegetables, homemade biscotti and ricciarelli.
Sadly, since my COVID adventures, I haven’t had the strength to cook in almost a year. Spending time in the kitchen, making good food with my husband or children, was a favorite Sunday ritual.
Tomorrow, my husband is doing the cooking. Thankfully, he is an amazing chef.
The lasagna sounds great! I do most of the Italian cooking in my house though my wife’s a fantastic cook who does everything from Thai to Indian to Chinese to her speciality; the classic British Roast Dinner complete with wonderful Youkshire Pudding. My thing is Southern Italian-Sicilian cooking. We live in Sicily, so you can guess how wonderful the ingredients for that sort of cooking are! Auguri di Buon Natale!
Catholics formerly observed fast and abstinence on vigil days before major feasts. Fast before the feast....very old principle. :)
I once ate baked calamari. I kept chewing and chewing and chewing….it was like eating rubber bands. My saliva couldn’t break it down.
At the same time, shrimp and scallops and pasta was the best.
My husband and I traveled across Italy in 2019. Started in Venice, a day trip to Piza, a few days in Florence, a few days in Rome, and a day trip to Naples. The food was outstanding.
We had wanted to go back in 2020 and spend more time in Naples, then Cinque Terra, then Milan. Covid shut the world down, then it shut me down. Hope to get back there.
Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo!
Calamari is an acquired taste.
If it was tough, it was either cooked too long or the heat was too high.
If you are going to fry it, it’s one and done. Literally, a minute. Otherwise, go with a low heat and cook a lot longer.
Somebody left it in the fryer for too long. I would have sent it back. Sorry you had the “chewing on a bicycle tire” experience.
If you cook calamari for longer than one minuCte...it becomes uneatable.
Calamari is to be flash cooked...less than a minute is best, and that’s the only way to enjoy it.
Well, it was my first Christmas Eve journey at the future Mrs DoodleBob’s family 7 fishes odyssey. I just kept chewing, but I was like an animal at the zoo; everyone watched so, wanting to marry my girl, I commented like it was the Curate’s Egg.
We are still going strong. And the in-laws didn’t hold it against me.
We must have eaten at the same restaurant.
It was in London and had to be the O-rings from the Space Shuttle Challenger.
Fried is good - I love it with marinara, not the sweet sauce.
ping
We had only one fish last night - salmon, plus risotto, asparagus, salad, garlic bread, and a couple of glasses of wine. For dessert, lava cake with vanilla ice cream and espresso.
Oh, and for appetizers we had crostini with soft cambonzola cheese spread, prosciutto and salami. YUM!
Buon Natale e felice anno nuovo a tutti!
Fast Easy Calamari
Ordered in a restaurant, you get your order fast— still hot and crunchy on the outside, while very soft in the inside----perfect calamari. And there's a reason---its probably been pre-soaked in milk.
Ing---1 lb calamari rings soaked in milk 3-24 hours 1/2 cup flour 1 1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp ea garlic powder, 2 dried parsley Lemon wedges 2 cups oil
Make---Combine flour, salt, garlic powder, and parsley flakes. Mix well and set aside. Heat the oil. Drain calamari well. Dredge rings one-at-a-time in flour mixture to completely coat. Deep fry 1-2 minutes til light brown. Liftout w/ strainer. Let excess oil drip. Set on server. Add lemon wedges.
Note---the lactic acid in milk makes the calamari soft.
an ever expanding bucket list includes tucking into a homestyle “Feast of the Seven Fishes”. Until then an occasional Peruvian style “captain’s platter – “Jalea” will reluctantly suffice … along with my homebrew version of “cioppino”.
Ah, the things men endure for love!
Our first Easter together after getting married, I wanted to make stuffed hens. My friend gave me the recipe but the temperature was wrong. My beloved husband, to applaud my efforts, dug right in. I got towards the middle of mine and it was undercooked.
“Honey, is yours okay?”
He smiled and nodded.
I looked at his plate. That sucker was raw!
“You don’t have to finish that. I don’t want you hospitalized with food poisoning.”
“No, no, it’s fine,” he insisted, not wanting to hurt my feelings, and kept eating.
I made sure to perfect that recipe. He never ate half- cooked stuffed hens again and my family has enjoyed it a number of times over the years.
God bless, and Merry Christmas!
I envy you- my adopted family is Sicilian, my grandparents are from Casteldaccia.
Our Christmas culinary tradition is making sausage bread. My wife is 100% Sicilian, her grandparents hailed from Sambuca.
The sausage bread is a carryover from her mother, who made it every year at Christmas. We made 6 this year, Christmas Eve morning. They’ll all be gone by tonight!
Buon Natale!
The fast was not observed if the vigil was a Sunday. (It wasn't even moved to the Saturday before; Sundays are not (and never were) days of penance, so the faithful would catch a break once in a while.)
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