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!

LA LA LA PESCE FRITA- BACCALA

Baccala  is the common dish for any Christmas Eve Seafood dinner. It is salted cod. The trick is to soak the cod in water for even as long as a day to reduce the amount of salt before cooking.
Dishes include simply frying some pieces in oil and garlic on the stove.

It can be rolled in a breaded  mixture or  flour and baked in the oven along with other fish/seafood dishes.

My mother used to make a baccala soup by putting some pieces in a tomato mixture.

I don't make the soup because no one else really eats it. My family like some baked cod or baccala from the oven.

This can be dish # 3 and # 4 depending on whether you make the soup.

Baccala is a good addition  to have for anyone who has a shellfish allergy and wants to partake in the Christmas Eve Seafood dinner.

Added note- don't over soak the fish in water to remove the salt. One year I did that and there was no taste left of the fish. It was very bland!

An old Italian rhyme- la la la, pesce frita, baccala!

CHRISTMAS EVE SEAFOOD PASTA

A  Christmas Eve Seafood dinner would not be complete without a pasta dish. The dish I make is a simple clam sauce.

Buy tins of clams to make this dish easy.

Using my basic tomato sauce- saute the onions and garlic in some olive oil, add a can or two of plum tomatoes, simmering until mixed then drain the water from the clams before adding to the tomato sauce.

If you want, you can use a seafood medley as used for the appetizer.

Let the seafood sauce simmer for about an hour.

Make your own linguine or fettucine if desired or buy fresh pasta from the store or simply use the packaged kind. A long wide pasta works best with this sauce.

Cook the desired pasta, drain and add the sauce on a nice serving platter.

This can be dish #2 for the Seven Fish/Seafood dishes of Christmas Eve.

Last Christmas Eve- 2011, I made two kinds of pasta since there was a mixed crowd. The one in the foreground had a meatball sauce while the one in the background had the clam sauce. I actually used fresh clams for that night. Some people ate both pastas.
Last night- December 15, 2012, I made a seafood sauce using clams, shrimps and scallops again with the simple tomato sauce on fresh fettucine.
Added note- a good cook will improvise with the crowd being served. A seafood sauce can include whatever combination you like.

CHRISTMAS HONEY BUBBLES OR STRUFFOLI

My mother always made honey bubbles at Christmas. One of my favourite treats since I would particularly eat one whole circle myself. It is actually called Struffoli and is a Neapolitan dish. Many people throughout Italy make a variation of it.

INGREDIENTS

Dough- 3-5 cups of flour depending on how the dough holds.

4 large eggs

Tablespoon of butter

Some grated lemon rind.

Some grated orange rind.

Salt to taste.

Honey mixture- 3/4 pound( 300g) honey.

3/4 cup (150 gm) sugar.

13/cup water

Some people will put some pieces of walnut or cherries or candied orange, lemon on top at the finished product. I use Christmas sparkle or sprinkles or whatever you call them.

Added note for the dough-As with any dish that requires eggs and flour, the exact combination may vary with each cook and region. Eggs can be classified in various sizes depending on the country. So use good cook judgement by making sure the dough is firm and held together as well as using your own egg to flour ratio.

DIRECTIONS.

Put all the ingredients for the dough in a bowl and mix then knead and knead until made into a ball.

Let it sit for an hour or more.

Should be stiff.

Take off a piece at a time,  can use your pasta machine to flatten into even pieces then cutting off some and  rolling into long shapes like a skipping rope or snake making it very thin.

Cut the shapes into very tiny pieces. Sometimes a helper comes in handy.

As you are cutting the tiny pieces, the helper can be frying the cut pieces in oil. Olive oil can be used but I use vegetable oil.

Damp dry the oil off the cooked pieces.

For the honey mixture-

Put the honey, sugar and water in a pot, big enough so it can boil safely.

Boil until the foam dies down and the honey starts to turn a yellow colour.

Turn down the heat then add the cooked pieces- bubbles or struffoli.

Stir until it is completely mixed.

I put wax paper on the plate before pouring the mixture.

It is usually shaped into a wreath. Add your own topping. Mine is the coloured sprinkles. If the honey is cooked correctly, the finished product should not be runny. If it is, eat it anyway as the taste remains the same- very good!

You can see the uncooked pieces in the picture. There are two versions of the finished product. Sometimes adding little Christmas items like the Santa in the sleigh gives some festive fun.  I have not made this dish for a couple of years. It is very tedious and requires lots of patience.

For the record this is Post # 50. Again Barb made me do it.
#struffoli#italianchristmasdish#timeconsumingbutgood#gooditalianchristmasfood#honeybubbles#lotsofhoneymakeagoodstruffoli

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!

#christmaseveseafoodappetizer#calamari#shrimp#celery#addalemonforzing#asimpleappetizerforChristmasEver#granpaloveshisseafoodappetizer#marinatetheseafoodappetizerinlemonandoliveoil#sevenseafooddishesforChristmasEve

CHRISTMAS EVE DINNER/LA VIGILIA DI NATALE

Christmas is Italy was a religion holiday. There was always good food. For Catholics there is no meat before the religious days. Thus the tradition of having seafood and fish on Christmas Eve while everyone waited for the birth of the baby Jesus. My mother would cook a variety of dishes. Apparently according to some research I did, eel is the most popular delicacy. We never had eel because no one liked it. The meal also is called the Feast of the Seven Fishes or Festa dei Sette Pesci. Coming to Canada when I was 9, we started to acquire Canadian customs such as a Christmas tree and exchanging presents on December 25th. The one important Italian tradition maintained in not only our home but other families of Italian descent was the Christmas Eve seafood dinner. For many Southern Italians not just those from the Ciociaria area, baccala-salted cod fish was the basic staple for the meal as it was very affordable to the poor. Today baccala continues to be eaten in a soup, fried or baked in the oven. There are several dishes to make for this festive meal. Over the next weeks, I will post a dish or two at a time. Years ago when my mother was alive, she would make the Christmas Eve dinner and Barb would make the Canadian Christmas dinner- a real blend of two cultures. Our children love seafood too. During the year both Barb and I try to enjoy a meal from the sea as was apparent from our trip to the St. Lawrence Marked last summer when we bought some fresh PEI mussels. Canada is home to a variety of fish and seafood. Just ask any Maritimer about the great lobster. Once a meal for the poor, anyone who purchases fresh fish and seafood knows it is actually a very costly endeavour.

#ChristmasEvedinner#\italiantraditiononChrismasEve#theprescipio#feastofthesevendishes#festadeisettepesci#lavigiliadinatale