Here’s How You Can Make The Ultimate Feast Of The Seven Fishes Dinner

Food 52

If you’re part of an Italian family or you’re often surrounded by Italian culture, you might’ve heard of the Feast of the Seven Fishes. This Italian-American tradition, which has roots in southern Italy, happens every year on Christmas Eve. The meal presents an abundance of seafood and fish-focused dishes — usually seven of them. (Each family decides just how many fish dishes they want to cook. It could be one or it could be 10.)

Some of the fish dishes cooked up on Christmas Eve include anchovies, lobster, eel, squid, octopus, cod, shrimp, mussels, clams and sardines. Some families cook separate fish courses while others throw all of the fish into one giant stew. The celebration also brings a lot of pasta, vegetables and Italian baked goods.

The best way to serve a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner is to first make some kind of antipasto or appetizer, and then a pasta followed by the rest of the main courses. Since it’s Christmas Eve, everyone can help decorate the tree in between courses.

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For an appetizer, you could start with easy stuffed clams or a classic clams casino with bacon, panko breadcrumbs, shallots, garlic, white wine, butter, lemon and red pepper flakes. Fried calamari is also a classic. You could be brave and clean the squid yourself or buy the pre-cut rings and fry them up — it’s your call. And you can’t go wrong with smoked salmon, Old Bay crab cakes, crab-stuffed artichokes or pan-roasted sea scallops.

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When it comes time for a light second course, ceviche is always a crowd pleaser. You could try this classic ceviche with cubes of red snapper cured in lime and lemon juice or a citrusy avocado and lump crab salad.

Pasta time means you can fill up your party guests with linguine and clams, lobster mac ‘n’ cheese or shrimp scampi. No matter which seafood you choose to pair with your pasta, you’ll want to be generous with the red pepper flakes, olive oil and garlic. The spice will help to balance the saltiness of the seafood and the richness of the pasta.

The main, hearty course is your time to showcase the fish itself, whether it’s salmon, bass, branzino, cod or any other whole fish that would look pretty with lemon slices and herbs. You can always ask the butcher at the fish counter to clean the fish for you, so all you’ll have to do is rub on a marinade, sprinkle some seasonings and stuff in some herbs and citrus.

Food 52

Grilled shrimp is another easy and fairly inexpensive main course that fills people up. Try this recipe for grilled shrimp with garlic and lemon or grilled shrimp with pistachio pesto. (Hopefully, wherever you’re celebrating Christmas Eve, there’s a grill available.) You could also make these simple grilled mahi-mahi tacos with fresh lime juice, paprika, avocado, cotija cheese and a red cabbage slaw, or try your hand at grilled, baked or fried salmon burgers.

Most importantly, you don’t have to be Italian to make a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner. Anyone can choose this lighter version of a holiday feast this year or just enjoy a reason to mix things up.