The Feast of the Seven Fishes
Are you looking for Christmas Eve menu ideas? The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian-American Christmas Eve celebration that culminates the holiday with dishes of fish and other seafood. At its roots, the holiday comes from Southern Italy, where it is known as ‘The Vigil.’ In the region, it unfolds more like a grand family meal than it does a holiday celebration. Stateside, it is a feast that can be enjoyed by all, just be prepared to cook a lot! Like most traditions, the menu varies greatly from region to region and from family to family. What really matters is the time families spend preparing and consuming their traditional meals during the holidays.
Although it is referred to as the festival of seven fishes, all seven dishes do not have to specifically be fish BUT, it all does have to be seafood. For dish one, it is customary to start with white fish in lemon, followed by clams or mussels in spaghetti. Following this, bacalao comes next, then any other fish dish can be served.
It is said that the number seven is chosen due to its religious affiliations. Seven of course is referenced many times in the bible including the 7 sacraments, deadly sins, the 7 cardinal virtues & the number of days for creation. Some say the Feast of the Seven Fishes stems from the Roman Catholic tradition of not eating meat on the eve of an upcoming banquet. Others suggest that it originated in Southern Italy. Italy tours are now on sale.
Here are a few popular suggestions: Baked cod, scallops, shrimp, calamari, oyster shooters, lobster, tuna, crab, and shrimp cocktail. Not sure what to serve for each course? Take a look at some of these ideas:
- For appetizers, keep it easy with items such as shrimp cocktail, marinated anchovies, hot crab dip, coconut shrimp, crab-stuffed portobello mushrooms, stuffed clams, cod fritters, grilled oysters, smoked salmon or whitefish, or fried calamari.
- For the salad, you can use anchovies on a Caesars salad (or hide it in the dressing,) or consider adding shrimp or smoked salmon to your salad. Another option is ceviche or sushi.
- For the pasta course, consider linguini with clam sauce, grilled prawns or shrimp scampi. In Italy, they often use tuna fish in their pasta course.
- For the soup course, you can go a bit more complicated with a fish stew or Cioppino, or you can also go with a seafood or clam chowder.
- As the main course, you could serve whole fish, seafood lasagna, mussels in white wine, or salted cod with tomatoes & capers.
You may notice that is only 5 courses and not 7…..well we have seen several versions where some people serve a palate cleanser, while others serve a veggie side dish for the 6th course, and then an Italian-style dessert for the last course such as tiramisu or cannolis.
If it’s your first time having a Feast of the Seven Fishes family dinner, we suggest assigning a course to each person coming. Have small plates available for each course. We also suggest that you have several hours and combine it as a lunch/dinner type of thing. Otherwise, how is one to consume 7 courses plus dessert?
Will you be creating a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner to celebrate Christmas Eve this year? Let us know in the comments. If you are looking for other ideas, read our post on Christmas Meals Around the World.
It’s also a good time to plan your New Years Lucky foods so you can shop for both menus and avoid the stores between Christmas & New Years.
