What Is Feast of the Seven Fishes?

By Fraya Berg for Food Network Kitchen

Fraya is a chef and a contributing writer at Food Network.

Whether you're Italian, Italian American or simply love a seafood spread, cooking up a feast of seven fishes makes for a very special Christmas Eve. In households with roots in the tradition, it's almost always a family affair, with generations of cooks in the kitchen and favorite foods that return year after year. But anyone can host their own festive seafood feast, and you don't have to stick to traditional recipes, either.

Here, everything you need to know about the feast of seven fishes, including its history and some of our favorite fish recipes.

What Is Feast of the Seven Fishes?

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian American Christmas Eve celebration that operates similarly to Thanksgiving, with traditional dishes and practices that span generations, decades and oceans. Known in Italy as La Viglia, which translates to The Eve, as in December 24 or Christmas Eve, The Feast of the Seven Fishes isn’t a religious celebration. Instead, think of it as a big, festive, fish-forward meal. There isn’t a set menu but there are a few dishes most families include, and we’ve got lots of info here that will help you plan a Feast of the Seven Fishes that fits your preferences — and the size of your kitchen.

The History of the Feast of the Seven Fishes

Why do Italian Americans celebrate Christmas Eve with a feast like no other? A confluence of factors led to this tradition. Firstly, there's the history of Italy itself. Prior to 1861, the geographic area that’s now Italy was a group of regions, each with its own government. Due to its long coastlines, seafood featured prominently in the cuisines of what we now call southern Italy. Unfortunately, before and after the unification, southern Italians were also poorer than their northern neighbors, and millions immigrated to the U.S. and other parts of the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, bringing their food traditions with them. This connection to Southern Italian foodways is why some historians believe Italian Americans honor Christmas Eve with fish-forward meals.

Others note that many Roman Catholics, including those of southern Italian descent, don't eat meat on Fridays or the eve of some holidays. Additionally, the number seven has Biblical significance: there are seven sacraments and deadly sins in Catholicism.

How to Cook the Feast of the Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve Dinner

The strictest adherents to the seven-fishes tradition will tell you that indeed there should be seven fish on the dinner table; others say that any and all seafood, including shellfish, count toward the final fish tally. The key to committing to cook seven different kinds of seafood is spreading out the dishes throughout the meal; instead of preparing seven whole fish for what would be an excessively large main course spread, offer perhaps three small appetizers, a soup, pasta, then entrée plus a side salad, each with seafood as the focus.

Tips for Shopping and Prepping

Buying the fish:

• Buy the freshest seafood possible from a reputable fish monger. Order what you need a week in advance because it’s a busy time of the year.

Menu planning:

• It’s okay to serve small “tasting-size” portions of each dish. With this in mind, assume each recipe you make will serve 1 1/2 times as many people as it says: a recipe for 4 will serve 6; a recipe for 6 will serve 9; a recipe for 8 will serve 12.
• Plan for two or three courses to be cold or room temperature: there aren’t enough burners on the stove for seven.
• You don’t need a ton of side dishes; many of the fish dishes have one built in.

Setting up for the feast

• Consider how many plates you own: we love serving each dish as a separate course, but only when we have enough dishes to carry it off. Three dishes served on one plate is fine.
• Decorations are traditionally Christmas-inspired, given that this feast is thrown on Christmas Eve.

Feast of the Seven Fishes Menu

Here, a suggested way to structure your feast. There’s no one “right” way to celebrate it, every Italian American does it slightly differently, but this is a good place to start. Feel free to mix and match recipes as you please. For even more recipes, check out our gallery of seafood recipes to add to your feast of the seven fishes menu.

1: First Course: Snacks and Appetizers

Baked stuffed clams, baked and raw oysters and shrimp cocktail are easy to start with before sitting down to plated food at the table.

Shrimp Cocktail

We think a platter of freshly cooked and chilled shrimp is about as festive as it gets. Make the cocktail sauce a day or two before your party.

Crab Dip with Garlic Saltines and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

If it’s a party, there has to be dip. This crab rendition is perfection.

Crudo on the Half Shell

Have the fishmonger shuck the clams for you but be sure they give you the shells. You can serve the clams on a bed of salt to keep them from tipping over.

Grilled Oysters Three Ways

You don’t need a grill to make these oysters: a 500 degree F oven will do the trick.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Scallops

Are these warm scallops baked with prosciutto and served on a bed of arugula a shellfish dish, an appetizer or a salad? They’re so yummy no one will care how you label them.

2: Second Course: Greens and Seafood Salad

Seafood in a salad with traditional Italian greens like endives, arugula and radicchio are a good idea between two heavier courses, and the red and green colors are holiday appropriate.

Grilled Seafood Salad

Giada knows a thing or two about Italian entertaining; this festive red and green salad filled with grilled scallops and squid not only looks elegant but also will have people coming back for seconds.

Italian Seafood Salad

Leave it to Ina to put together this salad that's at once impressive but also easy.

3: Third Course: Hearty Seafood Stew

A seafood stew like cacciucco is classic, but you can get a few different fish in one bowl: bragging rights at the water cooler in January: “We had 13 fishes at our feast”.

San Francisco Cioppino

Talk about delicious and easy! Make the tomato base for cioppino up to a month ahead of your Christmas Eve feast of the seven fishes and freeze it. Then all you need to do is add the seafood and cook right before you’re ready to eat. If you add a few chunks of a sturdy white fish like halibut, you’ve got seven fishes in one pot.

White Seafood Brodetto

Here, a steaming cauldron of fish and seafood stew that’s white, not red. That’s why it’s called brodetto, which translate to light broth: it’s just white wine and the juices of the clams.

4: Fourth Course: The Pasta Course

Most feast of the seven fishes spreads have one thing in common: a pasta dish.

7 Fishes Fra Diavolo Pasta

This pasta involves seven fish: clams, mussels, halibut, shrimp, anchovy, calamari and scallops.

Linguine with White Clam Sauce

Just a few ingredients come together quickly to make this simple and classic white clam pasta. Perfect for

5: Fifth Course: Meaty Fish Entrees

It’s nice to have a whole fish, head and tail included, to signify abundance. Fried fish can also be part of your main course: make an oven-fried fish if you don’t want to deep fry, or think about a shallow fry like crab cakes.

Salt-Baked Fish with Lemon-Olive Relish

Bringing a whole baked fish to the table is like bringing out the turkey on Thanksgiving: it’ll elicit lots of oohs and aahs. You don’t need to tell anyone how easy it was, especially since you made the relish earlier in the week.

The Best Baked Salmon

Nearly 500 people have rated our baked salmon and it has 5 stars: that’s why we call it the best. For your feast, cut the pieces in half before baking since you’ll have 6 other dishes to go with it.

Baked Halibut with Wine and Herbs

Make the tapenade 2 days ahead, and count on the 2-pound piece of halibut serving six to eight people.

Almost-Famous Spicy Fried Shrimp

Here, spicy fried shrimp that are an almost perfect copy of the Bang Bang Shrimp from Bonefish Grill. They’re not Italian, but they sure are a hit across the U.S.

Pan-Fried Cod with Slaw

We love a pan-fried fish, and this cod is no exception. Slaw is great when you’re serving this any other night, but for Christmas eve you might want to skip it.

6: Sixth Course: A Palate Cleanser

If you want to seriously up the ante on your feast, serve a small palate cleanser between your dinner and dessert courses to help cut through all the rich dishes you’ve been serving.

Lemon Ricotta Granita

Serve Giada's easy frozen dessert recipe in tiny little spoons so each guest takes a single tart-sweet bite.

7: Seventh Course: Dessert

Dessert is probably the best course for a guest to bring: if they’re late, dinner won’t be held up, and it probably won’t require reheating in the oven. Many people simply serve Italian Christmas cookies, as there are plenty to go around at these time of year.

Tiramisu

You absolutely can’t go wrong with tiramisu when you’re celebrating, and you’ll love the fact that you can make it the day before you serve it.

Mini Zeppoles

These zeppole are made from store-bought pizza dough. How easy is that?

Related Links:

100 Christmas Dinner Recipes to Fill Your Table

96 Easy, Elegant Holiday Appetizer Recipes

The Ultimate Italian Cookie Guide