The Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes is a traditional Italian banquet-style meal usually comprised of several different seafood courses. The number of courses or types of fish served at the meal is open to interpretation. Some people maintain that the number seven in this feast stands for the seven sacraments, and others say it refers to the number of days it took God to create the universe. Other variations on the feast call for nine types of fish to be served, signifying the Holy Trinity times three. And still others say the correct number is thirteen, for the twelve apostles and Jesus. The Italian peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic, Tyrrhenian, Ionian, and Mediterranean seas, and is dotted with numerous lakes, streams, and rivers. So it’s no surprise that seafood has been appreciated in Italy since antiquity.Nowadays, however, this tradition is more widely practiced by Italian-Americans in the US than it is by the majority of people in Italy. I recently cooked at a benefit event for the National Organization of Italian American Women, and decided to share the recipes. Whether you are planning on making a feast of your own or just want great seafood recipes to have on hand, you'll love my flavorful and healthful menu!
Menu:
Olive, Tuna, and Tomato Crostini
Citrus Infused Sea Scallops
Lemon Shrimp
Spicy Seafood Couscous
Busiati Pasta with Sardines and Fennel
Roasted Cod with Tomatoes, Zucchini, and Capers
Smoked Fish, Orange, and Radicchio Salad with Olives
Recipe adapted from Sicilian Style Tuna in The Mediterranean Diabetes Cookbook by Amy Riolo. Fresh tuna and swordfish are plentiful around the shores of Sicily. This recipe combines many of Sicily’s delicacies; olive oil, tuna, tomatoes, and olives all in one dish. This dish is impressive enough for guests, yet simple enough to make on the busiest of weeknights.
Serves 32 as a passed appetizer
Ingredients:
1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 tuna steaks (4 ounces each)
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1 cup diced tomatoes
8 good quality olives, pitted and diced
¼ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 long Italian filoni (baguettes), cut into 32 very thin slices, and toasted
Preparation:
1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add tuna steaks and cook 2-3 minutes per side until golden. Remove tuna from pan and place on a platter. Set aside.
2. Add onions and olives to pan.
3. Sautee, uncovered, on medium heat, until onions are translucent (5 -7 minutes).
4. Add tomatoes, stir well to combine, and cook, uncovered for 2-3 minutes.
5. Add tuna steaks back to the frying pan, cover and cook for 3-5 minutes per side until tuna is done.* Remove tuna from pan onto a serving platter.
6. Arrange toasted bread on platters. Cut each tuna steak into 8 thin slices. Top bread with tuna and onion/tomato/olive mixture.
Healthy Living Tradition:
Serve tuna steaks on whole wheat buns in place in place and serve for lunch as an elegant and healthy alternative to hamburgers or tuna salad sandwiches.
Citrus Infused Sea Scallops/(Capesante in padella)
Serves: 4 | Serving Size: Approximately 1/4 pound scallops
Prep Time: 5 minutes (plus 1 hour marinating time) | Cooking Time: 10 minutes
This recipe is from The Italian Diabetes Cookbook by Amy Riolo. These scallops are delicious on their own or tossed into a salad or pasta dish. If you don’t have time to marinate the scallops, simply toss them with the marinade ingredients before frying. The recipe will still work well; the only difference is that the scallops will have a slightly less citrusy flavor at the end.
In the U.S., scallops are sometimes soaked in the preservative trisodium phosphate (TSP), which makes them weigh more, and consequently cost more. TSP also makes scallops exude moisture as they cook, thereby causing them to steam rather than sear properly. Look for scallops that are labeled “dry,” meaning not soaked in TSP.
Juice and zest from 2 lemons
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 pound dry scallops, cleaned
1 roasted red pepper, cut into tiny pieces
1. Make the marinade by combining lemon juice and zest, olive oil, pepper, and garlic in a large, shallow bowl or baking dish. Mix well to combine. Add scallops to the marinade, cover, and refrigerate 1 hour.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Drain scallops and place in skillet. Cook 4–5 minutes per side, until cooked through.
3. Arrange scallops on a serving platter or individual plates. Garnish with pieces of roasted peppers and serve.
•Italian Living Tradition•
In Italy, scallops are often enjoyed raw in beautiful carpaccios. To make a carpaccio, simply place the scallops on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for at least 1 hour. When the scallops are almost hard, remove them from the freezer and, using a sharp filleting knife, carefully cut the scallops width-wise into paper-thin slices. Place them on a platter. Drizzle with a vinaigrette and serve with greens. Note that consuming raw or undercooked seafood and shellfish may increase your risk of food-borne illness.
Wine
Prosecco
Lemon-Scented Shrimp/(Gamberi al limone)
Serves: 4 | Serving Size: Approximately 4 ounces shrimp
Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cooking Time: 5 minutes
This recipe is from The Italian Diabetes Cookbook by Amy Riolo. All of the bodies of water that border Italy—from the Adriatic to the Ionian, Mediterranean, and Tyrrhenian seas—contain multiple varieties of shrimp, making shrimp popular everywhere. If you’ve never prepared shrimp before, you’ll be amazed at how easy it is. In my seafood cooking classes, I often tell students that, if they’ve had bad luck making shrimp in the past, it’s because they’re doing too much, not too little. The key to preparing good shrimp is choosing the freshest shrimp possible and cooking them just until done—not a second longer. Baby, regular, and jumbo shrimp all work in this recipe, so feel free to use whatever is freshest.
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Crushed red chile flakes, to taste
Juice and zest from 1 lemon
1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. When olive oil begins to release its aroma, add shrimp, salt, black pepper, and crushed red chile flakes. Cook shrimp on one side just until the tail of the shrimp is bright pink, approximately 1–2 minutes.
3. Turn shrimp over and squeeze lemon juice over top. Cook shrimp until all gray color is gone and they are pink and cooked through, approximately 1–2 more minutes. At this point, shrimp should be coiled slightly tighter than when they were raw. Shrimp will continue to sizzle in the pan.
4. When they are cooked completely through, transfer shrimp to a serving platter, garnish with lemon zest, and serve immediately.
•Italian Living Tradition•
In addition to serving this as an appetizer, you can toss these shrimp into pasta with fresh parsley or add into a finished soup or salad. They also taste great on top of the Crostini with Chickpea Cream (page 10).
Wine
Fiano
Spicy Seafood Couscous/(Cuscus alla mandorla Trapanese)
Serves: 4 | Serving Size: 6 ounces
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 25 minutes
This recipe is from The Italian Diabetes Cookbook by Amy Riolo. Trapani has been an important fishing port in the Egadi Islands since antiquity. The Arab influence in this Sicilian town has made couscous one of its local specialties. Called the “food of peace,” couscous is the star of a yearly international Sicilian festival that hosts cooks from four continents to celebrate this ingredient. The pesto in this recipe is a traditional Trapani-style pesto, made with almonds and tomatoes instead of pine nuts and basil like its Ligurian counterpart.
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons blanched almonds, lightly toasted, divided
1 pint small cherry tomatoes, 12 reserved whole and the rest quartered, divided
1/4 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 cup basil leaves, roughly chopped, plus more for garnish
1/2 teaspoon crushed red chile flakes
1/8 cup plus 2 tablespoons good-quality extra virgin olive oil (preferably first cold-pressed)
1 cup couscous
1 1/4 cups Homemade Vegetable Stock (page 287)
1 pound mussels, scrubbed and rinsed
1. Put 1/4 cup almonds in a food processor fitted with the blade attachment; pulse them 15–20 times until roughly chopped. Add the quartered tomatoes, cheese, garlic, basil, and red chile flakes. Pulse the machine 8–10 times. Then, with the machine running, use the feed tube to slowly add up to 1/8 cup olive oil in a slow, steady stream. The resulting pesto should be quite grainy but not too chunky and not too wet. You may not need all the oil. Set pesto aside.
2. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a saucepan over high heat. Add the couscous and cook, stirring often, until toasted, about 5 minutes.
3. Add the stock, cover the pan, and reduce heat to low. Add mussels.Simmer 15–20 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed. Fluff with a fork and toss in 1/4 cup tomato pesto.
4. Garnish with remaining whole tomatoes, 2 tablespoons chopped almonds, and a few basil leaves. Serve.
•Italian Living Tradition•
Try this delicious pesto variation on spaghetti or freshly grilled or broiled tuna for a vibrant dish that’s as healthy as it is delicious.
Wine
Nerello Mascalese
Busiati Pasta con Sardines and Fennel/ Busiati con le sarde e finocchio
I purchase artisan busiati pasta from LIFeSTYLE.
Ingredients:
1 cup coarse dry bread crumbs
Extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Pinch of sugar
1 fennel bulb with fronds, bulb diced and fronds finely chopped
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup currants
½ cup white wine
½ teaspoon crumbled saffron
1 large onion, diced (about 2 cups)
4 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
½ teaspoon fennel seeds, ground
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
6 very fresh sardines (about 1 pound), cleaned and filleted (you will have about 6 ounces fillets; see note), or substitute large best-quality canned sardines, drained
1 pound busiati
¼ cup lightly toasted pine nuts
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Lemon wedges, for garnish
Preparation:
In a small skillet, toast bread crumbs in 2 tablespoons olive oil until golden. Season with salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar. Set aside.
Put raisins and currants in a bowl and cover with the white wine and 1/2 cup hot fennel-cooking water. Add crumbled saffron and let ingredients steep together for 10 minutes.
In a large skillet, sauté the onions and diced fennel in 6 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat until softened, about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add anchovies, ground fennel seeds and garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes more. Stir in reserved fennel fronds. Add the raisin mixture and its liquid and bring to a simmer.
Season the fresh sardine fillets with salt and pepper and lay them on top of the onion mixture. Put a lid on the pan and turn off the heat for about 5 minutes, so sardines cook through and are just done. Stir to distribute chunks of fish throughout mixture. (If using canned sardines, skip this step and simply stir them in.)
Boil the busiati according to package directions. Cook until noodles are on the firm side of al dente, then drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water. Add pasta to pan with onion-sardine mixture, sprinkle pasta lightly with salt and gently toss together, adding a little pasta water to keep everything well moistened. Taste and correct seasoning; it should be well seasoned.
Transfer to a large platter or wide pasta bowl. Sprinkle with bread crumbs, pine nuts and parsley. Garnish with lemon wedges. Add a drizzle of olive oil, if desired.
Roasted Cod with Tomatoes, Zucchini, and Olives
This quintessentially Roman recipe is both festive and delicious. Invite your friends and family over to enjoy the feast with you.
Serves: 4
Serving Size: 1 cod fillet and about 1/2 cup of vegetables
Ingredients:
1 cup Roma tomatoes, diced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large zucchini, diced
1 yellow onion, sliced
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and diced
1/4 cup basil, chopped
4 cod fillets (4 to 6 ounces each)
Juice of 1 lime
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 425F degrees.
2. Place tomatoes, zucchini, and onion in a large baking dish and season with salt and pepper.
3. Drizzle with olive oil and roast approximately 20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.
4. Remove from onion, stir in garlic, olive, and basil.
5. Place cod fillets on top of vegetables and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
6. Drizzle with lime juice and return to oven. Bake for approximately 15 minutes until fish is cooked through.
Healthy Living Tradition: Cod is a mild tasting staple fish used in most parts of the Mediterranean. Since fresh fish freezes well, you can buy the cod when it is on sale and store it in the freezer wrapped in freezer bags for up to 6 months.
Smoked Fish, Orange, and Radicchio Salad with Olives/(Insalata di pesce affumicato, arance, e radicchio)
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Smoked white fish, more commonly associated with Eastern European cooking, is actually very popular in the Italian regions of Calabria and Sicily. In this recipe, it is paired with bright citrus and crispy radicchio for an additional Mediterranean touch. If you’ve never tried orange with seafood before, you don’t know what you’re missing! It’s a common Italian pairing that makes the flavors of fish sing! Leeks and cheese such as caciotta or provolone are other common additions which transform this simple salad into a full meal.
1 1/4 pounds whole smoked white fish, such as trout or chub
2 large juice oranges, peeled and supremed (see Italian Living Tradition)
2 tablespoons oil-cured black olives, pitted and halved
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano or mint
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1 small head radicchio, leaves separated and torn into bite-size pieces
1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Wrap the fish in aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet in the center of the oven. Bake until warmed through, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and from the foil.
3. Transfer the fish to a cutting board and let cool briefly. Using a sharp knife, make 2 crosswise slashes, one below the gills and the other at the narrow part of the fish at the tail end, just deep enough to reach the spine of the fish. Then, using the tip of the knife, make a lengthwise slash down the center of the fish, following the spine. Working from the middle of the fish, lift off the skin and discard. Using the knife and a fork, lift one side of the fish fillet from the spine and transfer to a bowl. Lift the other side from the spine and transfer to the bowl. Turn the fish over and repeat with the other side. Flake the fish into bite-size pieces.
4. Add orange pieces to the bowl along with the olives, oregano or mint, and olive oil. Toss well. Season with white pepper.
5. Place radicchio leaves on the bottom of a large platter and scoop the fish mixture into the center. Serve at room temperature.
•Italian Living Tradition•
To supreme an orange: Begin by cutting away both ends of the orange and setting the fruit on a work surface. With a sharp knife, cut away the skin and white pith in wide bands. Hold the peeled fruit over a bowl and begin cutting each segment away from the membrane by sliding the knife between the membrane and flesh on one side of each segment and then on the other side, cutting the segment free. Select the neatest orange segments for this recipe.
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