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| Clay pot clam bake |
This Christmas Eve we decided to attempt the feast of the seven fishes (festa dei sette pesci), a traditional Sicilian meal. It is based on the Catholic tradition of the La Vigilia di Natale, the Vigil of the Holy Night, where some Catholics abstain from eating meat.
I think the seven fishes correlates to the seven Sacraments in the Catholic Church.[i] However, seven is an important number in other contexts--- the seven virtues[ii]; the seven hills of Rome; seven gifts of the Holy Spirit[iii]; and the seven utterance on the cross. Some Italian-American families have 9, 12, or 13 different seafood/fishes.
The meal consists of whatever is fresh where you live and your means. The "traditional" items I came across were: eel, smelts, salted cod (baccalà), linguine with clams (Linguine con le Vongole-- one of my favorite all time dishes), calamari, and anchovies.
I am quite excited about the meal. I am also slightly anxious-- it is a lot of work and several of the recipes I have not made before. Thankfully, I am making three of my favorites dishes (Caesar salad, clam bake, and cheesecake).
Here is what we have planned:
- Cheese antipasti (to snack on all day long);
- Caesar salad (with anchovies) (recipe below)
- Clam bake with clams, scallops, and shrimp cooked in a clay pot (recipe below- adapted from The Clay Pot Cookbook by Georgia MacLeod Sales and Grover Sales);
- Salt cod in tomato caper sauce[iv];
- Lobster tail (see preparation below);
- Crab ravioli in a lemon butter caper sauce[v];
- Italian cheese cake; and
- to top it all off we plan to have a mint (it's wafer thin....).
Caesar Salad
Steven usually makes the Caesar salad which frees me up to stress over last minute details. Here is the recipe---
Mash together one tablespoon of anchovy paste, 3 cloves of garlic (minced), and two teaspoons of champagne mustard. Then add the juice of one third of a lemon and salt and pepper and mix; slowly add two tablespoons of olive oil. Toss cut up romaine lettuce with the dressing-- adjust salt and pepper and then add shredded Parmesan cheese to taste. Prior to serving add croutons.
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| Caesar salad |
Clam Bake
The first crisis was no clams. I went to Whole Foods yesterday to check that they would have clams today. I was assured that they would. This morning-- bright and early--- I went to Whole Foods to buy the seafood and no clams. Whole Foods did some wonderful service recovery and gave me mussels as a substitute (for free). So I guess this is a mussels bake???
The mussel bake is really easy- first soak your clay pot for 20 minutes and then put the following into the pot (in order)---
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| Clay pot clam bake |
Sliced onion (one onion thinly sliced); mussels (8 oz/227 g), shrimp (1 lb/454 g shells on), scallops (8 oz/ 227 g), squeeze the juice of one lemon over the seafood and then either zest the lemon and add the zest or slice the lemon and add it, 1/4 cup (125 ml) white wine, 5 cloves of garlic (whole), fresh parsley, fresh thyme, and red pepper (we used a hot lemon pepper instead of red pepper), salt, and pepper to taste. Place in a cold oven and set oven to 450 F/ 232 C. Cook for 40 minutes. Serve with bread. Note-- sometimes I add a piece of study fish to the mixture, clams, clam juice, lobster and/or crab. Also I add whatever fresh herbs I have-- oregano, basil, thyme, ect.... Also don't forget to rinse and dry your seafood before you put it in the pot.
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| Mussel bake |
Lobster Tail
[i] They are: Baptism, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Marriage.
[ii] They are: faith, hope, charity, temperance, prudence, fortitude and justice. [iii] They are: counsel, fortitude, knowledge, understanding, piety, wisdom, and fear of the Lord.
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