FRIDAY IS PIZZA AND CALAMARI

So I bought my pizza for the gang from Grande Cheese as normal. I had bought a large bag of calamari or I thought they were calamari. Anyway sitting down to dinner Friday the calamari looked rather thin. My little grandson stated are they onion rings grandpa? Barb even dipped hers in cocktail sauce. They looked like calamari in the bag. So we had pizza and onion rings along with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden. Not time I will read the package. However, they were in the frozen fish section of the store!

CHRISTMAS EVE SEAFOOD DISHES

The Christmas Eve dinner can consists of as many seafood and fish dishes you want. As stated in other posts, the magic number is to have is 7 for La Vigilia di Natale-the wait for midnight birth of the baby Jesus.

Fresh shrimp, calamari and scallops are my favourite. Cleaning and cutting the seafood, put on a slightly greased cookie sheet and bake in the oven until cooked. Like the picture, the shrimp should be pink when done.

My family love the many dishes. Shrimps and scallops ready for the oven- then ready for eating!

A nice platter of cooked scallops and shrimps with wedges of lemon make a tasty dish. Have tartar sauce and cocktail sauce and add to your plate if you like to use them.
 Barb likes tartar sauce with her breaded fish and calamari.

My little grandchildren love calamari rings-store bought. I added some breaded halibut fish to the platter for them.

From a seafood salad to a pasta dish

using clams, shrimps and scallops in a tomatoe sauce on freshly made fettucine, the seafood dinner is way under way.

You can have a baccala soup too.

Or simply roll fish pieces in flour and fry in oil and garlic.

Along with your platters of seafood add any vegetable dishes you want. Mine this year were red peppers and rapini salad. Fresh buns are added to the table Italian style! In Italian homes around the world and especially here in Canada, this meal is such a tradition on Christmas Eve. Buon Natale!

A CHRISTMAS EVE SEAFOOD APPETIZER

For a complete Italian Christmas Eve Seafood dinner, it is fun to have  seafood or fish for every course except dessert. A simple shrimp ring with cocktail sauce could suffice if the cook is in a hurry. Another easy dish to have is the seafood salad.

INGREDIENTS

Fresh or frozen shrimp. Precooked is the easiest

Fresh or frozen calamari. Precooked is the easiest.

Or simply buy a frozen bag of seafood medley mix as featured in the photo.

Celery- one stalk.

Two garlic buds or more if wanted.

Fresh lemon or two.

Olive Oil- one or two tablespoons.

Salt, pepper to taste.


DIRECTIONS

Defrost and drain frozen seafood or cook the fresh seafood.

Chop into bite size pieces.

Chop the celery stalk into small pieces.

Dice the garlic into small pieces.

Put the ingredients into a bowl.

Add the olive oil and mix the ingredients.

Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the fresh juice onto the mixture. A second lemon does add more flavour to it. Mix well.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Put in the fridge for at least two hours before serving. This allows the dish to marinate.

It can be made a day ahead if needed and kept in the fridge until ready to serve.

There are several brands of frozen ready seafood appetizers that can be added to the meal. Other non-seafood appetizers can be offered if wanted for Christmas Eve too. It depends on the crowd you are serving and what is preferred.

If trying to serve 7 seafood dishes, this could be number 1! Numero Uno!

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