Feast of the 7 Fishes: Which Fish to Pick!

Festa dei Sette Pesci is an exorbitant Christmas Eve Feast of aquatic creatures that originated in Southern Italy back when the Old World was still the One and Only.

Mamma Mia! La Nonna in all of her Glory.

On the Eve of the birf of the Baby Jeezus, every saintly church-going Catholic Matron would stomp around the house sweeping the floor, wailing her prayers and waiting for the fishmonger to show up with his wares.

Who knew that the sweet baby J would
turn out to be such a devote Dead Head. 

Having procured enough seafaring goods to feed her large, round, robust, loud and hungry family La Nonna would then holler and hoot for everyone's attention and begin to cook! MANGIA!

Want to tap into your old school Euro roots? Want to channel La Nonna in all of her rotund and bustling glory? Here are my seven fish recommendations to prepare a traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes!

1) Baccala - Any respectable Festa is not complete without a large slab of Salted Codfish. Meshes well with tomatoes and katamala olives.

2) SMELTS. Yup

3) Clams. They are in season. For twenty bucks you can procure yourself a family license to harvest them yourself, which is always a real good time.

My very own CAPE COD CLAM POT.

4) Calamari. GET REAL. You can't do this feast without some squid. I know they aren't in season but buy yoursef some frozen tubes and tentacles. Spice it up!

SPICE UP YA' LIFE

5)WHOLE ROASTED Mediterranean Branzino: DUH.

If this fish could talk it would say:
 "Scale me, Gut me,  Stuff me with lemon and herbs." WAH-LAH

6)Sardines. They are in season. Make sure they are fresh or your guests will feel like they are eating cat food.

ReooooooWWWW! Not a good look.

7) Last and certaintly not least EEL. Eel is the BOMB. Hard to fillet, but you will surely entertain while nailing a spike through its head...

This broad knows what's up.

HAPPY FESTIVAL-ING!