Christmas is two weeks away and I usually have my immediate and extended family over for Christmas Eve. We all look forward to it. It’s the one time of the year where we all celebrate together. I think the headcount is around 30 this year. However, there is still some family drama which I wish we could eliminate all together… but I guess it goes with the territory, especially in Italian-American families.
Christmas Eve
On Christmas Eve Italians celebrate with the Feast of the Seven Fishes. From what I gathered over the years, it started with a gesture of abstaining from meat and has grown through the years. My grandfather was a Sicilian fishmonger from Palermo so this was a very big deal for him. On Christmas Eve all my aunts would gather at my grandparents apartment and would cook all different types of fish and seafood. Baccala was one of the dishes they always made. I have made it in the past, but my family never ate it so I stopped making it.
We usually start with appetizers…fried calamari, clams oreganata, and seafood salad (my favorite). Of course there are other favorites of mine which I make every year. Linguine with crab sauce is my all time favorite pasta dish, after which comes Linguine with white clam sauce. I remember my aunts would sometimes make stuffed calamari in sauce which we would eat over pasta.
My aunts would go all out cooking for hours to make our Christmas Eve festive and delicious. There were so many of us in the family and somehow they made it work in five small rooms. The kitchen went right into the dining area and the living space was not large. I don’t know how all of them managed in that small kitchen. I sometimes wish I had a bigger space to put my entire family, but then I think about my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. and I say to myself…”they did it with so much less space.” My mother was the oldest in her family and the only aunt left is my Aunt Carmela who is 91 years old, bless her heart.
There are so many other dishes we make that night as well. Mussels, either marinara or in white wine sauce, stuffed lobster tails, shrimp scampi, fried shrimp and filet of sole. Over the years I’ve added variations for the non-fish/seafood lovers. In particular my sons, so I make appetizers like fried polenta and fried ravioli with marinara sauce. For dinner I make chicken cutlet parmigiana with linguine and plain fried cutlets, which is everyone’s favorite.
Traditional Christmas Dessert Treats
Christmas wouldn’t be the same without the traditional desserts and treats. Struffoli, Angeletti (or some regions call them Taralles), Wine cookies (also called Turdilli) Pizzelles, Panettone, and of course pastries.
In case you are interested, this weekend I will be making Struffoli for my cooking channel on YouTube “Nanny’s Italian Kitchen”. I haven’t made wine cookies for a long time because I’m the only one that usually ends up eating them, but I’m going to be making a small batch this year because I do miss them.
Remembering
I remember when I was a teenager growing up in East Harlem, my girlfriend Arlene Motta’s mother made the best wine cookies. Lorraine and I asked for the recipe after we got married because we loved them so much. When we made them, they didn’t taste the same. I figured out that something was left out of the recipe…baking powder. Some people hate giving their recipes to anyone. To this day I will not give out my Cheesecake or Carrot cake recipe. 😉 In my defense, it’s because I have OMG Cakes, Inc. Cannot give out trade secrets.
One year I wish I could go back in time and have an old-fashioned Christmas Eve celebration with my entire family…my mother, my sisters, my grandparents, my aunts, uncles and cousins. What I wouldn’t give!!!
Comments
5 responses to “The Holidays and the Feast of the Seven Fishes”
Merry Christmas Hedy, to you and those you love!
I love reading your posts. I was born in the same neighborhood. Although our family moved away in 1951, some of my aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents stayed for a few more years. Eventually, they move to Long Island, and New Jersey.
We lived at 316 E. 117th St. One of my uncles had a grocery store on that street and my grandparents lived on that street. Another Uncle had a grocery store on 124th st.
Everyone gathered at my grandparents on Sunday after church for Sunday dinner. What a wonderful time.
Even though I was raised in Florida, my roots and memories are in New YorCity.
Sometimes when I read your posts I tear up. I will be 73 my next birthday but I still remember those wonderful times.
Thank you for sharing your stories. It helps me stay in touch with those memories.
God bless you and your family, Mary Ann
Thank you so much Mary Ann. I have a quite a few people who are from the old neighborhood. As a matter of fact, reunited with a childhood friend who now reads my blogs. We are the same age and I have quite a few memories from that era as well. Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
My family was poor. But we didn’t know we were poor.never had the 7 fishes
We weren’t rich, but we were lucky my grandfather had a fish market.
We always had tiny fried fish {spearing, yes, the bait) which were like little crunchy treats. They were fried whole and I honestly don’t know how they were introduced into our feast. I liked them because they were so crunchy. I think it was out of necessity, because none of us could afford the lobster and sole mentioned here. I think I remember calamari and blue crabs when you could get them (NE Philadelphia). My mother had 4 brothers and 5 sisters..we had quite a group there for Christmas Eve…Nine aunts and uncles and one nun (when she was allowed to come home for Christmas). Over the years, the crowd thinned as the families grew, but as one of the first ten grandchildren, I remember the ‘old’ days. As time went on, us kids were banished to the stairs for seating and we ate in shifts. If the weather was good, most of us were outside. It definitely made you feel like a part of a big important family.
I miss those days, but though I moved away, I kept some of the traditions for my two kids. Thank you for helping me remember those good old days in the 1950’s. Buono Natale