How Many Fishes On Christmas Eve?

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

We were just puzzling over the family holiday plans, and came to a little stumbling block. With a couple of different outings scheduled for Christmas Eve, the seven fish dinner we usually like to enjoy may be a little difficult to pull off. The Feast of the Seven (or more) Fishes is an Italian Christmas tradition that commemorates the vigil – the wait for the midnight birth of baby Jesus. Believe it or not, it s actually considered a fast, during which no meat should be served.

Tradition factors strongly in most people’s holiday celebrations, and mine is no different. One thing that is certain is that we must have seafood on Christmas Eve. It’s not that my parents brought us up in Roman Catholic faith; it’s simply that the whole family enjoys seafood (and feasting!), and likes to honor that part of our Italian heritage with this celebratory dinner. So somewhere along the line, my family, like many other Italian American families, adopted the Roman Catholic custom of seven fishes on Christmas Eve.

It started innocently enough with a simple yet decadent dinner of lobster and melted butter. I remember as tiny kids, we watched with great delight as the angry looking lobsters tussled around the box on the kitchen floor. I also remember going with my dad at the crack of dawn to pick out the lobsters at the seafood store. Even early in the day, the line was a mile long.

As the years went by, the feast grew and grew, and us kids started to help cook. I remember being so proud of having made a complicated Fritto Misto (mixed fried seafood and veggies) including shrimp, calamari, zucchini and onions. One year I think we had a record ten different types of seafood, but some families even reach thirteen.

The seven fishes feast includes all kinds of traditional Italian seafood: smelt, salt cod, eel, anchovies, sardines, calamari, and plenty of shellfish. Most of these items that are best cooked a la minute, (especially if they are fried!). For this reason, it usually doesn’t fall in the category of meals you can make ahead, but you can simplify things a bit.

A couple of years ago, I was able to get all seven fishes into just two fairly uncomplicated dishes, a San Francisco style seafood Cioppino featuring crabs, scallops, shrimp, clams, mussels, and red snapper accompanied by a Caesar salad with homemade anchovy dressing.

For logistical reasons, this year we’ll try to simplify our menu even more. We need a dinner that can be ready within minutes of arriving home and involves minimal cleanup. We have nixed the elaborate multi-course menu in favor of a more simplified one that includes lots of appetizers and maybe just one main dish. With excited young kids in the house, an hours long seated meal won’t be in the cards.

There are many seafood appetizers that are easy to prepare ahead of time. Scallops can be wrapped in bacon and speared early in the day, ready for the broiler. Mushrooms and clams can be stuffed ahead of time. Crab cakes and dips can also be prepared in advance.

This year I’m gong to make a Venetian style Cod Mousse with Grilled Polenta (Baccalà Mantecato) that we enjoyed so much at an Italian restaurant in our old neighborhood. To make the very traditional salt cod well, it must be soaked for at least two days, with a few changes of water, and then drained and emulsified like mayonnaise with garlic and olive oil until it’s light and airy. It’s the ideal seafood appetizer to make ahead!

Serves/Makes: 8

• 1 pound boneless Baccala (dried cod)
• bay leaf
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup half and half
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste