Feast of the seven fishes and the Italian/Americans
- rosemary
- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
"The best part of the Feast of the Seven Fishes is that anyone with an appetite for seafood can make the tradition their own. You don’t have to be Italian or Italian American. You don’t even have to celebrate Christmas! You just have to cook way too much food for the people you care about."
Emily Saladino/Bon Appétit
I'm a little bit late with this one because the Feast of the Seven Fishes is a Christmas Eve feast. Well it is Christmas and time is at a premium for indulgent things like writing blogs.
My inspiration - this recipe - actually appeared on December 22nd on my New York Times desk calendar - Melissa Clark's Feast of the seven fishes pie - maybe she felt you needed a couple of days to put it together. I had never heard of this particular festival so I looked it up, to discover that although Catholic - in a way - it is not actually Italian. Well that's what the Italian Americans claim although the people of Calabria and to a lesser extent Sicily claim that it comes from there. Other parts of Italy, have other ways of celebrating La Vigilia - Christmas Eve. Which would sort of make sense, because the vast numbers of Italians who flooded into American between 1880 and 1924, did mostly come from the poor south - Calabria, Sicily, Campania, Puglia ... And of course, the same thing happened in all those other countries - such as Australia - which welcomed those same people - though at different periods perhaps.
Obviously the Italian Americans are going to claim it as their own - it is apparently now a big thing - although there doesn't seem to be a reference to it in print until 1983 - which is a long time after that massive immigration.
But before I get on to the Italian/American thing, a few words about the Feast of the Seven Fishes. The Catholic Church has a long tradition of abstaining from meat on the eve before a religious festival, and so often on those days the people ate fish. Christmas Day is, of course, one of the main festivals of the year, and so perhaps it makes sense that the day before has to be special as well.
But why 7? Nobody has a definitive answer for this. The 7 sacraments, 7 sins,
the 7 hills of Rome - which doesn't make much sense to me if the only place it could possibly have come from was Calabria ... Besides in Calabria - and also in some of America it's 13 fish - 12 apostles plus one who I suppose is Jesus - or 10. The seven doesn't necessarily mean an actual 7 fish either. The 7 can include shellfish and other seafood, or it could also mean 7 fish dishes. Whatever the reasoning the commonalities are Christmas Eve, fish and a massive feast that goes for hours. Well it is America - where Big rules.
As for the dish that started all of this for me - it doesn't specify seven different fish - just 1lb of mixed fish fillets, some scallops and some shrimp - and caviar if that counts. So maybe it's just meant to be one of the seven, 10, or 13 dishes.
So what about the Italian/American cuisine thing? Or should it now be American/Italian? Nobody ever seems to say that by the way, which I guess shows that the roots are more important than the leaves and the branches. As indeed they are. And in this case there is definitely more Italian than American in these dishes.
As we all know the Italians are very protective of their food traditions. Traditions which are generally regional in character, and with definite rules about how a particular dish should be made - even if those rules only exist in one nonna's kitchen. And even today this does seem to still be the case, although of course, you can find lasagne anywhere in Italy and ragù bolognaise too, not to mention pizza. Nevertheless there are indeed rules. And Italian Italians get very hot under the collar about dishes like Spaghetti and meatballs - which seem to be the prime Italian/American dish. Why? Because:
"The reason most Italians shied away from Spaghetti Meatballs is that thin strips of spaghetti can’t take the meatballs (in the same way a smaller clump of ragù could fill a reed-like penne, for example). And so what you effectively have are two separate components on one plate. An Italian would serve the two separately: the meatballs as a main and the pasta – with another sauce – as a primo piatto (first course)." InRome Cooking Classes
There are an amazing number of genuinely Italian/American dishes. I found one very long list compiled by rAskFoodHistorians on reddit of Italian-American dishes that do not exist in Italy - and you might be surprised by some of them - Caesar salad was one, which rapidly generated into an argument that actually it was Mexican.
So why would those immigrants not adhere to their traditions? Well they were overwhelmingly poor, and as far as their food was concerned it was based on local ingredients and what they could afford or grow for themselves. In America they could not find olive oil, basil, anchovies, the fish were different ... and so they had to substitute. Moreover they could on the other hand afford more meat. America had a lot of meat, and it was cheaper and so they began to incorporate more meat into their dishes. And at the same time they adapted the ingredients that they could find so that the result was a cousin to what they ate in Italy. More Italian than American.
"this was an expression of optimism. Of being able to eat a rich, carnivorous diet, just as they had seen the wealthy in their home villages eat." InRome Cooking Classes
And maybe pizza is the prime example of this - from the thin crusts and simple toppings of Italy, to deep dish, or simply more substantial pizza bases topped with large quantities of things like peperoni, and seafood. Different and yet with potent reminders of the homeland and its food, but without the rigid rules attached to their making back in Italy.
"They're comfort foods. They don't judge. They're not meant to be eaten in the company of anyone who would judge you," Miranda Kaplan/Serious Eats
It is interesting is it not how immigrants - even after several generations, still cling to the food of the country they came from, even if those foods have gradually changed over time?:
"The lasting appeal of Italian-American food isn't just in the taste; it's in the memories it creates, this rich food tradition bridges the old world and the new, carrying stories of perseverance, family and celebration."
Of course, today, you will also find rigidly classic Italian food in some of America's top restaurants, and you will also find all manner of people, from top chefs to housewives concocting yet more fusion dishes, and tampering oh so slightly, but oh so differently with classic dishes - which of course applies to just about any sacred dish in the world these days - as Nigel says about making the very British summer pudding:
"I make the classic summer pudding but generally stray off the beaten track (always a good idea with classics, since you may discover something you like even more)" NIgel Slater
In an article exploring the search for perfection he says:
"We need to identify the heart and soul of a dish and get that part of it right. In some ways you can get this from a well-written recipe. But the truth is that there is more to it than that. Some of it is intuition, a gut feeling that you have understood what I like to call the 'essence' of the thing. The part of something that really rings your bell. If you like, the whole point. Identify, and then pursue."
And I guess that's partly what those long ago Italian immigrants were trying to do - grasp the essence of the foods they grew up with, even if they had to adapt to what was to hand.
I'm still not really clear why it's Italian/American rather than American/Italian. Maybe the balance hasn't yet shifted far enough to the American side of things. I wonder who will win that battle. I suspect the Italians already have.
YEARS GONE BY
December 27
2023 - Leftover cake
2022 - Dinner on 9 June 1979
2020 - Missing
2019 - Nothing
2017 - Thus spake Zarathustra
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