Saturday, December 17, 2005
Feast of the Seven Fishes
Ciao amici!Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Kwanza, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year to all. Go here to see the recipes for the traditional Italian Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes.
Preparing seven different dishes with fish is a southern Italian tradition. Why seven? No one knows for sure. Seven days of the week? Seven sacraments? This was our family tradition each Vigili di Natale and all the women helped prepare the feast.
Some of the fish and shellfish our family used for the feast were lobster, shrimp, smelts, and even eel! I remember being forced to taste the eel on Christmas Eve when I was very little (we had to taste everything) and promptly getting sick all over the table. (Ha!) I was never forced to try anything ever again! Actually, as an adult, I tasted eel and found it to be quite good.
We also had pastas, vegetables, fruits and loads of homemade Italian sweets (including the wonderful marzipan).
Christmas Eve was the biggest holiday in our family. First the food, then the music (uncles playing the violin, guitar) then midnight Mass. Back home and then we opened our gifts.
Christmas morning and day was not as special as Christmas Eve and the Feast of the Seven Fishes.
Enjoy.
Best wishes,
Isabella
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Seven fishes sounds better to me than the traditional turkey!
I hope you had a wonderful day today, and Christmas Eve last night. My friend also celebrates Christmas Eve, too. A European thing, I guess, that the Brits never adopted.
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I hope you had a wonderful day today, and Christmas Eve last night. My friend also celebrates Christmas Eve, too. A European thing, I guess, that the Brits never adopted.
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