In Italian communities across the America, one of them being our own New Orleans, the celebration of Christ’s birth is ushered forth not by turkey and ham, but by fish. Imagine seven bountiful seafood-centric courses served at a dining room table surrounded by family and friends. This is the Feast of the Seven Fishes.
What began as an ancient Roman Catholic tradition of eating fish on Christmas Eve has become a much-anticipated holiday happening for many families, even beyond the Italian culture.
Why seven? The number seven is connected to many Catholic symbols: seven sacraments, seven days of the Creation, seven deadly sins, and thus seven courses.
Why fish? Traditionally, Catholics have abstained from meat and dairy products on the eve of certain holidays, including Christmas. The Feast of the Seven Fishes, then called “la vigilia,” first emerged in Italy as a means to honor family, friends, and home while also celebrating the sea, which plays a major role in Southern Italian cuisine.
Michel Di Giovine, a professor of anthropology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, summed up the meal by saying the feast is a “four- to-five-hour affair of eating, involving a highly standardized procession of multiple seafood-based courses and an equally ritualized method of consumption that is punctuated by only brief periods of repose.” In other words, you eat a lot of food over a long evening in a grand Italian style.
When Italians immigrated to America in large numbers in the late ninetenth and twentieth centuries, the Feast of the Seven Fishes became more prominent in the United States than it ever did in Italy, perhaps because Italian immigrants wanted desperately to hold on to their traditions in the face of American assimilation.
Today, the Feast of the Seven Fishes remains popular in parts of the country with large Italian-American populations, and New Orleans is no exception. As the tradition has been passed on and grown, it has jumped outside the circle of Catholic Italian communities. The feast is especially popular in Southern coastal states where fresh seafood is abundantly available. In New Orleans, the Feast of the Seven Fishes is an opportunity to elevate food common to the area into a meaningful celebration.
Preparing Your Own Feast of the Seven Fishes Meal
- For aspirational hosts hoping to prepare their first Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner this year, here are a few things to consider:
- A Feast of the Seven Fishes, with its seven courses, can be quite elaborate, but much of the meal is prepared ahead of time—allowing the host a better chance to sit and enjoy the meal with their guests rather than remaining trapped in the kitchen.
- While tradition is to serve the meal on Christmas Eve, there is no hard and fast rule—it is perfectly acceptable to host the meal anytime during the holidays that works best for your schedule.
- Seven courses require a lot of dishware. Do a quick inventory to make sure you have enough dishes to serve each person seven courses. If your good china won’t stretch that far, it’s fine to fill in with plain white dishes or even glass plates. These can be purchased inexpensively at big box discount stores. Or start going to estate sales with the recipes you plan to serve in mind.
- Seven courses is a lot of food. Serving sizes can be much smaller than a normal meal. You don’t want folks to get filled up by the fourth course.
- It’s never too early to contact your fishmonger. Be sure you purchase your seafood from someone you trust. And while you can get much, if not most, of the seafood you will need at your local supermarket, it won’t hurt to put in your order ahead of time.
- Finally, enjoy yourself. It isn’t a race. This meal is meant to be savored. Family and friends around the table are a blessing. This is a time to enjoy good food, and even more important, good company. It’s a time to remember those no longer at the table. Remember the good times. Laugh. Be in the moment. The dirty dishes can wait. (Pro-tip: hire someone to wash dishes after each course, and the kitchen will be clean the next morning. It’s so worth it.)
Course One: Appetizer
This can be as simple as boiled peel-and-eat shrimp with cocktail sauce. (Pro-tip: have the shrimp steamed at the grocery store. All you will have to do is spread them out on a platter, pour a bowl of your favorite cocktail sauce, and garnish with cut lemons and parsley.)
Another quick and easy favorite is smoked tuna dip, which can also be purchased at specialty food stores or some grocery stores. Serve with fancy crackers.
Course Two: Salad
A fresh salad prepared with butter lettuce and cherry tomatoes, topped with lump crab meat and a light vinaigrette, will look like Christmas on a plate. Green, red, and white are also reminiscent of the colors in the Italian flag.
Salads can be pre-plated, with vinaigrette added just before serving.
Course Three: Fish Stew
Another dish you can prepare ahead. The base for most soups and stews can be frozen well before the day of the feast. Just before dinner, pull the thawed base out of the fridge and pop on the stove before you serve the appetizers. Add fresh seafood, and by the time the salad is finished, the stew will be warm and ready to ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with fresh herbs (parsley will do) for garnish. Serve with crusty bread.
Course Four: Pasta
This is an Italian tradition, after all. Most Feasts of the Seven Fishes have pasta dishes in common. Linguine with clam sauce is an ideal dish to serve at the Feast. Other options are seafood spaghetti marinara, or scallop and shrimp pasta.
Course Five: Meaty Fish Dish
Serving the whole fish, head, and tail intact, signifies abundance. This will also be the true centerpiece of the meal, and one of the more memorable dishes of the evening. Snapper, salmon, trout, or bass all work well for a dish that will look impressive on a platter.
Course Six: A Palate Cleanser
The tradition is to serve a bright lemon sorbet. This can also be scooped into serving dishes before the meal and tucked into the freezer. Be sure to remove from the freezer prior to serving the fifth course so that the sorbet will be soft and creamy.
Course Seven: Dessert
Tiramisu is an obvious choice. It’s Italian. It can be made ahead. It is light and delicious. Make it seasonal with pumpkin and gingersnap. Other dessert choices are a panettone, or creamy panna cotta topped with a drizzle of chocolate ganache and a sprinkling of slivered almonds.
Images courtesy of Chef Nick Lama.
A spread from the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner, served at Avo New Orleans throughout the month of December.
Leaving it to the Experts
If that all sounds like too much work, it may be worth heading to a local Italian restaurant that presents a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner during the holidays.
Nick Lama is a New Orleans-born and -raised third-generation Sicilian American and the owner/chef at Avo, a regional Italian restaurant on Magazine Street. “My family was in the seafood business for a long time, and I love seafood,” he said. “I grew up with Italian women who prepared the Feast of the Seven Fishes. My grandmother always made oyster and artichoke soup two or three days before Christmas. It’s one of my favorite childhood memories.
[Get Chef Nick Lama's recipe for his grandmother's oyster and artichoke soup, here.]
“We have been doing it at Avo since we opened in 2015,” said Lama. “We missed a year or two during Covid, but people started asking about it so we brought it back.”
Lama serves the Feast of the Seven Fishes throughout December. “I love doing it,” he said. “I grew up here, and I’m proud of that. I’m also proud that the dinner is a blend of my Italian heritage and an homage to my family who worked in the seafood business. It gives me a lot of joy to share that history with others.”
Instead of the traditional seven courses, Lama incorporates seven types of seafood into three courses. “That’s more manageable for most people.” He starts with an antipasta. “This year I’m doing my grandmother’s oyster and artichoke soup, but I’m adding crabmeat.” The entrée will be Gulf fish in pasta, plus clams and mussels. The meal concludes with a dessert.
Another New Orleans restaurant participating in the tradition this year is Gianna—which will be serving a family-style Feast of the Seven Fishes Dinner in four courses on December 11 and 18.
Make a reservation at Avo at restaurantavo.com, (504) 509-6550 or Gianna at giannarestaurant.com, (504) 399-0816.
