Both the sites listed below have links to seven recipes for the seven fish dinner. The other info. provides some background
http://www.italiansrus.com/articles/7fishes.htmhttp://italianfood.about.com/library/weekly/aa121698.htmThe number seven is used because it is the number of the cardinal virtues and they glorify the thriftiness of the housewives who waste nothing.
Families share Italian tradition of cooking seven fish dishes
By Anne Cloonan, Staff writer
12/4/2002The traditions of two parts of Italy meet in the North Huntingdon kitchen of Joyce and Bob Garritano. Joyceâs mother, Christine DeBone, makes the various seafood dishes of the traditional Italian vigilia, or Christmas Eve supper, for family and friends.
DeBone learned the recipes from her mother and mother-in-law. Her parents came from near Cercemaggiore, Italy.
Dilly (Zambano) Miller of Irwin contributes bagna cauda, a green salad and cranberry hazelnut biscotti to the meal. Her husband, Don, contributes red and white wine to the feast that he makes.
Dillyâs ancestors came from the province of Friuli in Northeast Italy.
Bagna cauda, which means âhot bathâ in Italian, is a hot dip of olive oil, butter, anchovies and garlic.
Pieces of Italian bread and fresh vegetables are dipped in the bagna cauda as an appetizer.
The Millers, Ann Pekar, the Garritanos and their daughter Nicole try the various dishes.
âThe recipe for this meal is definitely friends, family and life,â says Bob Garritano. âThis is like a social event. Everybody catches up with each other.â
The vigilia was traditionally made up of 13 dishes, seven of which had to be seafood.
Families can make different dishes to come up with seven fish dishes. For example, cooks can make fried baccala, cold baccala salad or baccala stew.
Baccala is dried cod that must be soaked several days to reconstitute it.
When buying baccala, it has the appearance of a piece of cardboard, but Bob says after several days of soaking, itâs one to two inches thick.
DeBone prepares baccala in a casserole of marinara sauce, chick peas and garlic. She also fries both battered baccala and smelts in olive oil.
Another part of the Christmas Eve tradition is to go to church after supper.
âYou sit in church, you eat all this stuff and garlic, youâre bound to knock somebody out,â DeBone says with a straight face.
Another dish is spaghetti with alio olio (olive oil and garlic) sauce with anchovies. Cooked savoy cabbage is a side dish.
Stuffed squid about four inches long are another traditional dish DeBone and Joyce serve.
DeBone stuffs the squid with soft bread crumbs, egg, Romano cheese and parsley. She cooks the stuffed squid in marinara sauce.
The Garritanos also serve a traditional Italian salad of sliced oranges, hard-boiled eggs and black olives sprinkled with pepper.
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