The first time Ian Cox’s family attempted the Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes — a beloved Italian holiday tradition — they prepared seven full-sized entrees and attempted to consume them one after the other.
“We couldn’t eat them all, we got so full,” said Cox, a manager at the Wrecking Bar Brewpub in Atlanta. “So over the years we fine-tuned it. Now it’s more like seven tapas dishes spanning the globe. We always do raw oysters, and there’s usually a tuna tartare in there.”
Beth Hamilton, a stay-at-home mom in Atlanta, gets around the seafood surfeit by constructing her annual Feast of the Seven Fishes out of seven varieties of seafood rather than seven distinct dishes.
“So if we have a seafood gumbo or soup with several different kinds of fish in it, then we count them all. Someone even suggested we do cupcakes decorated with Swedish Fish for dessert.”
Hamilton’s family began preparing the feast with good friends to create a tradition for their kids growing up. “We love the symbolism of it,” she says. “The seven fishes represent the seven sacraments of the Church, and the number seven is revered in the Bible.”
The funny thing is that neither Hamilton nor Cox is Italian. The even funnier thing is that many Italians have no idea what you’re talking about when you bring up this tradition.
“I don’t know any Italians who prepare it,” says Riccardo Ullio, the Atlanta restaurateur who owns Sotto Sotto and Fritti in Inman Park. For good measure, he polled some Italian friends in Atlanta and couldn’t find a one who has made the meal.
However, the tradition, which originated in Southern Italy as a way of observing Lenten-style abstinence from meat, is very widely observed among Italian-Americans in the Northeast and freely adopted by seafood lovers throughout the country.
It makes perfect sense, too.
A carefully prepared fish dinner on a cold winter night has a special kind of opulence. It is hearty without being overbearing — an indulgence that won’t try to outdo the eggnog. I like to make a seafood dinner on Christmas Eve because I know the next day will involve a full turkey dinner, a plum pudding and far too much wine.
Oftentimes I prepare this seafood stew, which borrows a little from cioppino and a little from bouillabaisse, but it is really just something I’ve developed over the years to work with fresh Gulf and Atlantic seafood. It is incredibly easy to throw together and has a finished flavor that’s grand beyond its ingredients. It makes clean, simple white wines come alive. Inexpensive Southern French or Italian wines (Picpoul de Pinet, Garganega, Gavi di Gavi) are what you want with the tomatoes and saffron in this stew.
It only contains five fishes, however. You could start, as we like to, with some oysters on the half shell or smoked salmon with crackers. That gets you up to six fishes. I suppose a Caesar salad, with its all-important anchovy, pulls you over the finish line.
Or you’ve always got those Swedish Fish cupcakes.
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HOLIDAY SEAFOOD STEW
2 tablespoons olive oil
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