The Feast of the Seven Fishes - an Italian-American Tradition, but is it Italian?

The Feast of the Seven Fishes - an Italian-American Tradition, but is it Italian?

Well, it depends on how you define Tradition and how you define Italian.  The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a Christmas Tradition for many Italian-American households.  The idea is that on Christmas eve (Christmas day for some), the feasting table is laid with seven dishes that represent the bounty of the sea. The exact number seems to be contested and that, like the specific dishes that are served, seems to be family-specific.  Some families have seven and some families have 12 while other families use a different number of dishes. Many Italian-Americans have very specific and heart held beliefs about this event known as The Feast of the Seven Fishes.

A great article on the history of The Feast of Seven Fishes is by Amy Zavatto and can be located at http://www.ediblemanhattan.com/z/topics/history/the-feast-of-the-seven-fishes/.

One of my favorite quotes from that article is:
“I think something is not authentic or real when people want to do it all perfect. If there’s anything food culture is not, it’s perfect. And Italians don’t give a shit about these rules—they’re the most anti-rule culture there is! Rules are for the French. The number seven doesn't matter. The meal is a heartfelt, imbedded thing. You eat fish on Christmas Eve, and that’s it.”

From my research, it seems like The Feast of Seven Fishes is an American-Italian Tradition but not an Italian Tradition.  In Italy, you often find fish and no meat on the Christmas evening feasting table. It's often refered to as the feast of the magro - no meat. This custom is directly from Christianity. The "event" of the Christmas evening meal is called Vigilia (a vigilia).  

Vigilia - (http://es.thefreedictionary.com/vigilia)
1   Retain a person awake or asleep.
2   Lack of sleep or difficulty sleeping. insomnia.
3   Day immediately preceding the one that is festive for the Church. before.
4   Work or activity that takes place at night

In more agricultural times, a "vigilia" was the time that the family gathered together after work in the fields. They would often finish chores, feast, and tell stories as a way of teaching and passing on traditions.

In relation to Christmas and the Christmas evening meal, the Vigilia is the family feasting event where the family gathers, shares joy, stories, and traditions. The mean itself can be quite varied but due to the heavy church influence, meat abstained from and fish figured prominently.

Although the Italian-American Tradition of Christmas dinner known as The Feast of Seven Fishes" isn't "native Italian", you can see how it is strongly based on the traditions of the native Italian culture and practices.

Rather than arguing whether it is "authentically Italian", Italian-Americans should be proud that we've held onto the heart of the traditions from our ancestral land and adapted them to our unique culture of being both Italian and American. Traditions that connect us to the continuity of the past are extremely important - as is making sure that the traditions are more than just handwaving. We should be proud that we've connected these traditions in a way that honors our ancestry and speaks to us as modern day Italian-Americans.

Whether you celebrate The Feast of the Seven Fishes, Vigilia, Christmas, Solstice, Sol Invictus, Yule, Festa della Befana (American Style) or some other holiday at this season, I say to you, "i migliori auguri"!

I'll close with the last paragraph from the first article I references:
"“The important thing is to maintain the tradition,” says DiPalo. “That’s what Christmas is—a way to celebrate family and invoke the memories of all the people that have passed on. It brings them back, and we’ll see them alongside us, those who used to make this dish the best, and who wouldn't eat that one. To an Italian family—and an Italian-American family—what’s special takes place around the dinner table.”"

Benedizioni,

Enzo

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Here is a good article about Limoncello, that intensely lemony liqueur loved by millions.

http://www.italiannotebook.com/food-wine/amalfi-lemon/

It focuses on the Amalfi coast area.

My favorite Limoncello wasn't from Amalfi, but was instead from the tiny island of Capri. That's [ˈkaːpri] with the emphasis on the first syllable.

That was, until I tasted the Limoncello from Sicily which is made from their GREEN lemons. The Sicilian green lemon tends to be less acidic and more floral.

Whichever type of lemons are used, this is a nice Italic beverage that you can get in most local liquor stores.

Ci vediamo più tardi!

---Enzo

Sicilian Gnocchi - an American variant

I made this recipe the other night. It was a big hit so I figured I'd post it here for folks who might be interested.  The pics aren't in order but you'll get the idea.

Ciao!

My pictures (in reverse order!) of the process can also be found at: https://www.facebook.com/nivho/posts/10152055025804810

Ingredients

·         2 large russet potatos, baked & mashed smooth

·         1/4 - 1/2 cup pistachio flour

·         1 3/4 cup flour (more as needed to get the right consistency

·         1/4 teaspoon salt

·         1/4 teaspoon white pepper

·         4 oz toasted pine nuts

·         seeds from 1 pomegranete

·         12 - 16 oz butternut squash chunks*

o   6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

o   1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

Directions

Pistachio Flour -

Make pistachio flour, if need be by putting the roasted, unsalted nuts into a food processor until smooth enough. Grind in short bursts to retain the flavorful oil naturally in the nuts.

Potato -

Preheat oven to 400F. Prick potatoes all over with fork. Bake 45 minutes, or until soft. Cool 10 minutes, or until easy to handle. Peel potatos and then into a large bowl, mash them until smooth. I use a potato ricer to get a nice consistency.

Roast butternut squash -

Place the butternut squash chunks in a roasting pan (or on a baking sheet with edges). Add the butter and brown sugar. With clean hands, toss all the ingredients together and smooth into a single layer, if possible.  Roast for 45 minutes at 400 degrees, until the squash is tender and the glaze begins to caramelize. While roasting, turn the squash a few times so they brown evenly. Set aside (I drain off any remaining liquid and just let the squash begin to cool).

Pine Nuts -

Toast the pine nuts in a *dry, non-stick skillet being careful not to let the pine nuts burn. You only want them toasted. Let them cool on a papertowel, spread out in a single layer. Set aside for later.

Pomegranate seeds -

De-seed the pomegranate into a bowl. Cover and put in the fridge for later use.

VIDEO: http://lifehacker.com/5895852/deseed-a-pomegranate-in-10-seconds-using-a-wooden-spoon

Gnocchi -

Lightly flour a baking sheet (or two) and your work surface.

To the bowl with the mashed potatos, gradually add the flour until the dough is firm but smooth and slightly "tacky" but not sticky. I start by adding 1/4 cup of the pistachio flour and folding it into the potato. The I add 1/4 - 1/2 of the normal flour at a time until I get the right consistency. Use your hands so you get a feel for the dough. About 5 minutes or so of kneading is what mine generally take. Once the dough is smooth, put it back into the mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap for about 10 minutes.

Cut the gnocchi dough ball into four equal pieces and put all but one back into the bowl and cover. Transfer the first piece of dough to lightly floured work surface. Roll into a long snake/strand about 3/4-inch thick. Using a pastry scrapper, cut into 1 inch lengths. Do this for each of the pieces of dough.

Roll each bite into a ball quickly and then gently press each ball into the tines of a fork to form grooves in the dough. Hold a fork at about a 45-degree angle (I face the back of the fork away from me but other folks hold it so the back is facing towards them) with tines of the fork touching the work surface. With your thumb (perpendicular to the work surface) gently press each "pillow" of dough down the tines. As you press, the dough will begin to curl around your thumb or fingers. Help it along, as you remove it from the fork. There will be a pattern of raised stripes across the gnocchi.

Place the finished gnocchi onto a lightly floured baking pan as you finish them.

Cook only the amount of fresh gnocchi that you will be eating immediately (that day). Any remaining gnocchi can be frozen. Put the excess fresh gnocchi on a baking sheet, leaving a bit of space between each piece. Freeze. Once they are frozen you can place in a plastic freezer bag.

The Gnocchi Boil -

Bring a large pot of water to a boil with 1 teaspoon of sea salt added. Lower the temperature so the water is at a gentle boil, not a vigorous boil.  Add the gnocchi but not too much at once. Stir lightly so they don't stick together or to the bottom of the pot.  Watch them and once they are ALL floating at the top (1 - 3 minutes) use a slotted spoon and scoop them out of the boiling water into a warming (medium heat) non-stick fry pan with 1 tablespoon of organic extra virgin olive oil. Be careful when putting the gnocchi into the frying pan because the water from the gnocchi could spatter when it goes into the oil.

When the gnocchi start to brown *slightly*, add the pine nuts, and squash (I drain the liquid/butter from the squash first). Lightly toss until all ingredients are warm, transfer to plates and garnish with the pomegranate seeds.

Good alternate recipe with pictures: http://www.chezbettay.com/pages/dinners1/dinrs_gnocchiN.html

Here are my pictures from dinner. Sorry they're not in order!

Happy Samhain!

So on this day of the Dead, now November draws near,

Set a place for the Dead, with a cushion and soft seat,

And serve the best food and the fondest wine for your Dead,

Your unseen Dead, and with your hearts speak with Them, 

Encourage Them, give them peace, and do Them honor.

In the dark night we call to one another.

Brothers and sisters call to each other,

Parents to their children, lovers to their beloved.

Then let us drink to our love, and death,

and to those who have gone before,

and renew our troth of faith that they and we are friends,

and that King Death is friend of both,

For Death divides not the wise.

A toast then, to Life, and Death, and Love!

Happy Samhain Everyone!

Strega in Sicily...

As some of you know, I recently spent a month in Sicily for vacation and reconnecting with my ancestry. While there, I (eventually) met what we in the USA would call Streghe.

I was always told that it Italy/Sicily, the word Strega was always negative and never used as a self-identifier.  I was very surprised to find that to be the case "for the general, non-magical public" but not necessarily for the magical community.

For the general public, like in parts of our culture, Strega (or any type of witchcraft) most definitely has a very negative connotation. However, that's starting to change. There are dozens of shows (mostly for teens and pre-teens) where the good guys are witches. Kinda like the Disney show "Witches of Waverly Place".  What I did notice was that the word Strega was almost never used on its own by the *general* populace. It was always clarified with something like: strega cattiva, strega buona, strega bella, strega maga, etc. to indicate what type of strega, as if the word (on its own) was simply an indicator of a practitioner of magic (folk or cultural but not ceremonial).

Most of the Catholic magical practitioners that I met held the same opinion: strega = diabolism, just like the general population over here. The Catholic practitioners had a huge variety of names that they self-identified with, most commonly benedicaria.

The pagan magical practitioners that I met often used Strega-XXX or simply a dialectical word.  I heard: "magara", "maiare", "maga/mago/magoi" (which my family uses), and even "fattucchiere", "maghiardzha", and "pratico". It seems there's no end.  Those pagan religious witches that I personally met often used one word to describe the magical practice  (what we do) and another for their spiritual practice (what we experience/believe).  Apparently, context is KEY. A word may be appropriate in one setting but WRONG in another setting.

One of the most interesting things is that I was told is that "religion is what the community does and since the community is Catholic, everyone is Catholic if they are going to be part of the community". Apparently, you can be "socially Catholic" but religiously or spiritually something else - just don't talk about it.

I didn't notice any "pagan community" to speak of as one might find in the USA or Europe probably because the Church is so pervasive in all parts of live and culture.  However, when it exists, it seems to be just a couple people who got together and it was considered a spiritual practice or a vocation. That lead to an interesting discussion of "covens" which I was told were NOT training groups or where someone learned but were instead "gatherings for magic and celebration" - congrega (if unrelated) and clan or tribù (if the people were related) were the words that I was told were most common.

Just goes to show you that the words religion, spirituality, vocation, and magic are incredibly varied and often depend on context.

Just some food for thought.

Ciao,

Enzo (short for Vincenzo)