Feast of the Seven Fishes Blog | Italian Christmas, Italian Food, Cooking, Recipes and Traditions

Baccala / Salted Cod Salad Recipe

Are you looking for an interesting way to cook cod? How about Shannon's favorite Baccala salad. Enjoy,

Ingredients

• 1 ½ Pound of Baccala (cooked and shredded)
• 1 Cup Red and Green Peppers (cured in vinegar)
• 1 Cup Celery
• 1 Cup Celery leaves
• 1 Cup Black Olives
• 3 Cloves of Garlic
• 10 Leaves or 2 Tbs of Fresh Basil
• ¾ Cup Olive Oil

Instructions

Cook Baccala for four minutes in boiling water, cool and shred. Combine with red and green peppers, celery, celery leaves, black olives and garlic that have been finely chopped. Sprinkle with coarse black pepper, chopped fresh basil and drizzle with olive oil. Refrigerate on a platter covered until cold or when ready to serve.

Photo Credit

Spicy Mussles Recipe

Photo Credit

With all that cold weather all over the place, here's a yummy recipe to warm you up. Shannon's favorite mussles recipe.

Ingredients
3 pounds of mussels-scrubbed, bearded and rinsed

2 cups dry white wine

1/4 cup olive oil

2-4 cloves garlic-crushed

4  anchovy fillets
 ½ or more teaspoon hot pepper flakes

1 teaspoon vinegar

2 tablespoons of parsley-chopped

Instructions
In a large pot, bring the wine to a simmer. Garlic lovers may choose to add a couple minced cloves of garlic at this time. Add the mussels, cover and cook until all mussels have opened, up to around 5 minutes. Remove mussels and increase the heat until the liquid reduces about 5 minutes. In a large sauté pan, over medium heat the olive oil and add the garlic cook until soften but not burn. Add the anchovies and hot pepper flakes (more than a ½ teaspoon if you dare) and stir. Add the mussels, and the reduced liquid they were cooked in along with vinegar and simmer 1 to 2 minutes. Remove from heat and place in a large serving bowl – mussels may taste even better if you attempt to keep them warm. Garnish with fresh parsley. The mussels can be served immediately with a few hunks of good Italian bread or chilled for a few hours and served later.

Tiramisu Recipe by Shannon

Photo Credit

Now that the Holiday season has passed, it's time to start posting some of Shannon's favorite recipes again. Let's start with a great Italian dessert - Tiramisu. Enjoy.

Ingredients

• 1 Pound of Mascarpone Cheese
• 1/2 Cup of Sugar
• 4-5 Tablespoons of Kahlua
• 1 ½ Cups of Heavy Whipping Cream
• 1 Large Pack of Lady Fingers
• 1 -2 Cups Strong Brewed Coffee
• 1 Tablespoon of Vanilla
• 2 Egg Whites
• 1 Dark Chocolate Bar

Instructions

In a large bowl mix together the mascarpone, ¼ cup sugar, and egg whites until a smooth consistency is achieved. In a chilled bowl add the heavy whipping cream, vanilla and remaining ¼ cup of sugar. Beat until soft peaks form and it becomes whipped cream. Fold the cheese mixture into the whipped cream mixture. In another bowl add the Kahlua to the coffee. Dip the ladyfingers quickly in the coffee mixture (do not soak as they will become soggy), and the place the cookies in rows in a cake pan. Spread a layer of mascarpone/cream mixture across the ladyfingers. Shave chocolate mixture over that layer and repeat steps (sort of like making lasagna) until all the ingredients have been used. Shave chocolate over the top layer and make some curls. Cover and chill over night.

Please comment if there any recipes that you'd like to see on our blog. Also, if you have a favorite Tiramisu (or any recipe for that matter), send it along and we'll share it with our community.

How To Make Focaccia Bread

Photo Credit goes to: http://flickr.com/photos/avlxyz/2145110663/

HeraldNet made an interesting point in one of their online stories. Why buy Focaccia in a supermarket when you can easily make it yourself at home. Here's the recipe for what is called Easy Italian Herb Focaccia.

• 31/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 envelope Fleischmann's RapidRise Yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• 12/3 cups warm (120-130 degrees) water
• 2 tablespoons shredded fresh Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon Italian herb seasoning

Mix flour, undissolved yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and water, stirring until well mixed. Spread dough into a greased 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Cover.

Let dough rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Poke multiple holes into the dough, using the handle of a wooden spoon. Drizzle remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over dough, then sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and Italian herb seasoning. Cover.

Let dough rise again for an additional 15 minutes while the oven preheats to 375 degrees.

Uncover and bake 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool slightly and cut into slices; serve warm. If desired, serve with additional olive oil for dipping.

Feast of the Seven Fishes Stories in the New York Times

It really seems like this has been somewhat of a breakthrough year when it comes to the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Many of you sent us your stories about your Feast celebrations, we also read many blog entries about such and even the New York Times had to stories about the Feast.

Abbondanza
In 7 Fish (More or Less), a Holiday Tradition

And for those of you who remember, here's a 1987 article written by Craig Claiborne.
A Seven-Course Feast of Fish

After this 1987 story, it took the New York Times 21 years to write about the Feast of the Seven Fishes again. It's pretty cool they didn't just write one story, but two. Thank you all for sharing your memories.

happy new years

We wish all of our readers and members of our little community a happy new year. Thank you for coming to our site, buying our book, eating fish at the Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival and caring for observing existing traditions and creating new ones. We wish you all the best luck, health and good spirits in 2009.

New Years Eve in Venice Italy

With the Feast of the Seven Fishes behind us, it's time to start looking forward to New Year's Eve. One of our readers sent us this story about New Year's Eve in Venice. Apparently Venetians get to look forward to a massive "kiss-in" with more than 60,000 people locking lips as they enter 2009. Apparently that's how many people showed up last year. The party begins at 10pm to allow for various rounds of practice kisses. Here's a link to the press release.

The Big Day

In a perfect world I'd bombard you folks with pictures and video of today's preparations - but I'm not so sure that's going to happen.  We have been absolutely swamped getting ready for the Feast - and the fact I've been under the weather hasn't helped.  Last night I rallied enough to help Shannon make a ton of fresh pasta for the anchovy pasta dish.  And we seem to have pulled together everything we need otherwise.  This year's menu is a bit slimmed down - we've already done baccala twice for demos and decided to go easy on ourselves.  So we're having smelt and calamari and a variety of fried fish and the anchovy pasta and oysters and - I think - a grilled octopus.  We may not have seven separate fish but we'll for sure have seven dishes so I think we're safe.  I just hope we find a minute to upload some visuals - but if not during the day for sure in the days ahead.  Here's hoping your own Feast of the Seven Fishes is a memorable and delicious one.

Buon Natale!
Bob

The Christmas Tradition in Emilia

Here's a blog entry from my new friend, Alessandro Cagossi, who gives us some insight into Christmas northern Italian-style.

By Alessandro Cagossi

The essence of Christmas Day for all Italians is family and food, “la famiglia e il cibo”. However, in Italy there are twenty regions with twenty different traditions to celebrate Christmas, sometimes similar, sometimes very different. I come from Emilia, a region in northern Italy that is known as “the food valley”. The food tradition includes lasagne, tagliatelle, tortelli, ravioli, prosciutto, parmigiano-reggiano, mortadella and many more.

The holiday tradition starts December 8, with the day dedicated to the devotion of Mary. Many people visit cemeteries praying for lovely ones that passed the way.

December 13th is St. Lucy's Day (“La Festa di Santa Lucia”), with traditional exchange of gifts. In my region, Saint Lucy is the main occasion that makes kids happy, much more than the Epiphany, when a witch named Befana pleases kids with gifts, closing the whole festivity period.

So Christmas is an occasion to reunite the family under huge manger scenes. December 24, Christmas Eve (“La Vigilia di Natale”) is a day of abstinence from meat, so as a first dish we have dumplings with pumpkins (“tortelli di zucca”, I am sure Americans would appreciate them). The second dish consists largely of fish with "Anguilla" a big female eel, roasted, baked or fried and baccalà. These dishes are served with mostarda emiliana, a sort of spicy fruit jelly. We finish with fruit, as a sign of good fortune. After dinner, some attend midnight mass.

December 25, lunch on Christmas Day is a long affair. Delicacies such as cappelletti (a sort of small tortellini) in capon broth, boiled capon, zampone, a pig's foot filled with spiced meat, or cotechino, a sausage made from pig's intestines, are particularly popular in Emilia. Vegetables are dipped with balsamic vinegar. Finally, in my region the Christmas sweets are the "panettone" (cake filled with candied fruit), "torrone" (nougat) and "spongata" a sort of panforte made with hazelnuts, honey and almonds, signs of good fortune.

December 26, Saint Stephen's Day, can be another occasion to share a lunch with family.

During the celebration of the New Year's Day, another tradition is the burning of the Yule log. This is an example of pagan and Christian blending.

Finally, January 6 is the Epiphany (“La Festa dell'Epifania”) the holiday that closes the festivity period. This is the last occasion to have another lunch together.

The Cagossi’s family reunited for a Christmas lunch.

How to cook the Feast of the Seven Fishes for under $80

Today the Early Show Saturday Edition challenged its "Chef on a Shoestring" Dave Pasternack to prepare the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner on a budget of only $80. Here are some of the dishes that Dave,  executive chef and owner of the New York restaurant Esca and co-author of  The Young Man and the Sea: Recipes and Crispy Fish Tales from Esca, cooked up:

Baccala Salad

Baked Clams

Sicilian-Style Swordfish

Collard Greens and Cannellini Beans

Seafood Linguine

Affogato

Click here to see the recipes behind Dave's work.  And for those of you more visually inclined, here's a video of the CBS segment.

Here is how Dave did, budgetwise.

Baccala Salad:
salt cod $9.99
yellow onion .28
leek $1.99
celery $1.99
white wine $4.95
apple .89
lemon .67
fingerling potatoes $2.99
scallion .79
parsley .79
TOTAL = $25.33

Baked Clams:
little neck clams $4.29
horseradish $2.00
bread crumbs $1.19
lemon .59
TOTAL = $8.07

Sicilian-Style Swordfish:
Swordfish $10.99
Lemons .59
TOTAL = $11.58

Collard Greens:
collard greens .99
cannellini Beans .79
ham hock $2.29
TOTAL = $4.07

Seafood Linguine:
linguine .99
pancetta $4.49
dried red chilies $2.25
shrimp $4.00
mussels $1.49
scallops $3.50
lobster $7.95
clam juice $1.29
garlic .39
TOTAL = $26.35

Affogato:
espresso powder $1.99
gelato or ice cream $1.99
TOTAL = $3.98

TOTAL COST = $79.38!