Festa dei sette pesci?

[HeHateMe]

Anyone do this?

Thinking about it for this Christmas eve. My wife is half Italian but it was never really a thing in her fam. They would always do some big fish main and some fishy apps but not a huge fish centric feast with such variety.

I dont know if I want to bother with eel, but so far I have shrimp, mussels, scallops, and a 3 lb octopus. Any must have recipes to recommend?

 

[nvanprooyen]

I've never heard of this, TIL. Sounds like a good time. Nothing too crazy on my end this year, we're just doing a bunch of apps on Christmas Eve. Sort of along with your theme though, planning on making a half bushel of oysters.

 

[HeHateMe]

I've never heard of this, TIL. Sounds like a good time. Nothing too crazy on my end this year, we're just doing a bunch of apps on Christmas Eve. Sort of along with your theme though, planning on making a half bushel of oysters.

I dont think I'll do any traditional Italian preparations this time around because it probably too much work. Definitely doing shrimp cocktail, mussels steamed in garlic/butter/wine, simple seared scallops and for the octopus, sous vide for 4 hours and then a quick grill to char, lemon parsley vinaigrette.

 

[nvanprooyen]

I dont think I'll do any traditional Italian preparations this time around because it probably too much work. Definitely doing shrimp cocktail, mussels steamed in garlic/butter/wine, simple seared scallops and for the octopus, sous vide for 4 hours and then a quick grill to char, lemon parsley vinaigrette.

Sounds awesome

 

[Hawkeye OG]

Sometimes I wish I lived along the coast so I could get fresh seafood. Outside of shrimp, I rarely cook seafood because I know it's most likely been frozen.

 

[Penny Traitor]

Sometimes I wish I lived along the coast so I could get fresh seafood. Outside of shrimp, I rarely cook seafood because I know it's most likely been frozen.

For serious. I was never a big seafood fan growing up, but I realize now that it was because I grew up in the very landlocked Midwest. After having lived right off of the Gulf and the Pacific Ocean at points in my life, it was too hard to go back to frozen. It's like you have to drench it in butter and garlic just to taste something.

As to the OP, I dated an Italian girl once whose family did the Seven Fishes thing every year and did get an invite to partake. My weak Midwestern digestive system simply could not handle that much seafood, but I will admit it was the only time I ever truly enjoyed eating octopus. This was Seattle, so it was fresh and not frozen. I was told that makes all the difference.

They served it as a salad and after a few minutes on Google, THIS looks to be what they served.

 

[The Apostate]

Sometimes I wish I lived along the coast so I could get fresh seafood. Outside of shrimp, I rarely cook seafood because I know it's most likely been frozen.

Not most likely, almost certainly because it's the law.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/nyregion/sushi-fresh-from-the-deep-the-deep-freeze.html

"Most would be even more surprised to learn that if the sushi has not been frozen, it is illegal to serve it in the United States"

 

[dennehy]

Did it a couple times, was among my favorite food experiences.

Should have bacala with tomato gravy as one course, that's the traditional dish for seven fishes. We also did mussels, scallops, homemade pasta with clams, snapper, squid.

 

[dennehy]

If it's flash frozen it's pretty much no different from fresh.

 

[The Apostate]

Anyone do this?

Thinking about it for this Christmas eve. My wife is half Italian but it was never really a thing in her fam. They would always do some big fish main and some fishy apps but not a huge fish centric feast with such variety.

I dont know if I want to bother with eel, but so far I have shrimp, mussels, scallops, and a 3 lb octopus. Any must have recipes to recommend?

My wife is very Italian and one of her family traditions is to source a couple of whole branzino, stuff the cavity with fresh rosemary and lemons and grill whole. Simple and delicious.

 

[Burque]

Sometimes I wish I lived along the coast so I could get fresh seafood. Outside of shrimp, I rarely cook seafood because I know it's most likely been frozen.

The best sushi chefs in the world always freeze their sushi and the before service.

 

[Xuder O'Clam]

Smelt, calamari, pasta con alici, or puttanesca

 

[nvanprooyen]

If it's flash frozen it's pretty much no different from fresh.

Yep. And often, even when it's local they still do this. My local fish monger has a bunch of stuff that comes from like 30 miles away that gets flash frozen immediately and then distributed locally. Still excellent.

More here:

Flash frozen fish a tasty opportunity for community fishermen

We join together with partners to taste test frozen fish from community fishermen compared to fresh-from-the-grocery samples.

ecotrust.org

 

[dennehy]

Yep. And often, even when it's local they still do this. My local fish monger has a bunch of stuff that comes from like 30 miles away that gets flash frozen immediately and then distributed locally. Still excellent.

More here:

Flash frozen fish a tasty opportunity for community fishermen

We join together with partners to taste test frozen fish from community fishermen compared to fresh-from-the-grocery samples.

ecotrust.org

I'm not a huge fan of living where I live, but having a beach and a real fishmonger a few minutes away is pretty great. Some of the fish are flash frozen, but most of the shell fish comes from a few miles away. Tough to beat that.

 

[nvanprooyen]

I'm not a huge fan of living where I live, but having a beach and a real fishmonger a few minutes away is pretty great. Some of the fish are flash frozen, but most of the shell fish comes from a few miles away. Tough to beat that.

Definitely. You're coastal SC right?

 

[dennehy]

Definitely. You're coastal SC right?

Yeah I live south of Myrtle Beach. There's a town near me called Murrel's Inlet where the beach ends and it turns to coastal marsh. Full of shell fish.

 

[LordKOTL]

My wife's family used to always do a fish, even though I'm the eye-tie--and my aunt/late grandma always did ham for Xmas.

Thing is, she's a lapsed catholic and I'm best classified as anti-religion, so there's no need for us to have fish.

Truth be told though if we were hosting I probably wouldn't mind grilling up a nice sockeye salmon.