Feast of the Seven Fishes

Executive Chef, Bryan Moscatello

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is the Christmas Eve meal that many an Italian households participate in.  The premise is simple- you have a feast which includes seven different types of fish.  When I was growing up these meals would include a selection of scungilli, bacala, calamari, mussels, clams, shrimp, sardines, octopus and a fin fish sea bass, tuna or grouper.  Usually the shellfish were braised in marinara, the shrimp prepared with garlic, the sardines cured, the octopus charred and the fin fish grilled.  We had pasta and bread to soak up the seafood flavored marinara. 

This year I am excited to be serving the Feast at Potenza on Christmas Eve and I will also be doing a class at Zola Wine and Kitchen tonight 12/16.  The two events will vary but one thing is for sure there will be plenty of fish to go around.  At ZWK we’ll learn to make variations of bacala, calamari, mussels, shrimp, anchovies, clams, bronzino and tuna.

At home I haven’t kept up with this tradition for so long.  I do however know that I will change in the years to come.  I think it will be fun to challenge myself to come up with a completely different feast every year that can’t include any of the fish from previous years.  I wonder how many years I will be able to keep that up.  There you have it a completely different feast annually and looking to the future I see periwinkles, langoustines, orata, Spanish mackerel, cuttlefish and bringing back some childhood favorites such as eel and octopus.  This is going to be great delicious fun.

See you at Zola wine and kitchen and Potenza!

Tags: christmas, fish, holiday, Seafood