Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve this year, we didn’t cook our usual appetizers.  Instead, I took part in a typical Italian tradition (after I learned about it in the 1000 Foods to Eat Before You Die) called the Feast of the Seven Fishes.  Basically you have to eat seven courses of seafood and while this can vary, most of the documentation that I could find describes an appetizer, a pasta course, a salad course, a soup course and then three main courses followed by a light dessert for a total of 8 courses, seven of which are fish. 

After much agonizing, my menu included: 

 Course 1:  Spicy Thai Squid with Chilies & Sesame Encrusted Seared Ahi Tuna

Course 2:  Crab Linguine

Course 3:  Grilled Octopus Salad with Marinated Fennel

Course 4:  Norwegian Cod En Brodo with Tarragon Pesto

Course 5:  Citrus-Stuffed Striped Seabass

Course 6:  Feast of the Seven Fishes Pie with Scallops, Shrimp and Leeks

Course 7:  Baked Fresh Trout in Pepperonata Sauce

Dessert:  Mascarpone Sorbetto with Rosemary Honey with Panforte

I picked these because non were really things I had either cooked before (squid and octopus) or not that way (En Brodo or Seafood Pie).  When asked, my husband preferred course #6 which was grilled on the barbeque.  Elena’s favorite were the two appetizers and mine was for sure the Spicy Crab Linguine.  Best part of the whole night was that about ¾ of the way into cooking everything, I knocked a full bottle of cooking wine  off the counter onto my 2^nd largest toe, shattering the nail and creating a bloody, very sore mess.  I’ll be hobbling around for a few days and will be nailess for a few weeks.  The second best part of the night was that Elena bought brew glitter which we put in the champagne and it makes the champagne glittery and so beautiful.  I couldn’t get a picture to show how it catches the light so you’ll just have to pay the $10.00 from Amazon and put it in your own champagne.  She bought Rose Gold.  So pretty. We also had a beautiful flower arrangement we made via an zoom class to decorate our table!

In addition to the whole menu being a 1000 thing to eat, Norwegian cod and the panforte are 1000 things in their own right. Seems fitting that a night like Christmas Eve during the Pandemic should check off three of the 1000 things.  Bad news is that Elena gave me a book called 1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die.  Apparently, I’ll live a long time.