15 Christmas Fish Recipes for the Holidays (2024)

FAQs

What are the 7 traditional fishes Christmas Eve Italian food? ›

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

Typical feast

The meal's components may include some combination of anchovies, whiting, lobster, sardines, baccalà (dried salt cod), smelts, eels, squid, octopus, shrimp, mussels and clams. The menu may also include pasta, vegetables, baked goods and wine.

Great fish and seafood recipes for a festive dinner might include salmon, cod, smoked salmon, smoked trout, sea scallops, and many more. To help you get started, we gathered our best fish recipes for Christmas. You may make this your new annual Christmas dinner tradition!

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian-American tradition to ring in Christmas Eve, when Roman Catholics celebrate the midnight birth of Jesus, known in Italian as “La Viglia.” Fish is a traditional ingredient in the Christmas Eve dinner because custom calls for the eschewing of red meat leading up to the holiday.

In Italy, Christmas Eve dinner is traditionally lighter with no meat and a lot of seafood, while the Italian-American meal has evolved into much more of a feast. Bring on the sword fish, tuna, salmon, octopus salad, smelts, calamari, spaghetti with clam sauce and the famous Italian classic—salted cod, known as baccalà.

On Christmas Day, the culinary festivities expand to include antipasti, cheese boards, charcuterie, flavourful first courses, succulent second courses, and a delightful array of desserts. The main dish typically highlights fish, such as trout or salmon, in most regions. In Naples, eel is a popular choice.

December is the peak season for ocean perch, and there is no better month to enjoy cod and monkfish. The yuletide season is also the perfect time for cooking up fresh oysters, clams, and scallops. Below, find recipes and other information on these shellfish and fish to expect at the market in December.

Over time, fasting evolved into abstaining from meat. And so, Catholics from much of Europe celebrate their big holiday family meal on Christmas Eve, highlighting fish. Although the Church dropped the meatless rule in 1966, fish still holds pride of place on the evening of Dec. 24 for many families.

In much of Italy, tradition calls for fish on Christmas Eve, once a day of abstinence in the church calendar. Fish is tied to the Christian religion in other ways: As far back as the days of the Roman Empire, a fish symbol was used by early Christians as a way of identifying each other.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a Christmas Eve tradition in Italian-American households, particularly among families with Southern Italian roots. It typically involves serving a multi-course seafood dinner, and the number seven is symbolic of the seven sacraments in the Catholic Church.

What fish is eaten at Polish Christmas Eve? ›

The Wigilia supper

Fish provides the main dish of the Christmas Eve feast across Poland. There are variations of carp fillet, carp in aspic, gefilte fish (Jewish-style carp), sweet with onions, carrots, almonds and raisins. Accompaniments consist of cabbage, cooked red or sauerkraut with apple salad.

Christmas Wrasse

Thalassoma trilobatum, were named for their green and red coloration. They are also called ladder wrasses, 'awela (Hawaiian), and green-barred wrasses, and can be up to 11 inches in length. Wrasses are a big-lipped, spindle-shaped fish that “flap” their pectoral fins up and down while swimming.

Solution: Salmon is called the king of the fishes. It has a silver, shiny skin just like that of the king's crown.

Christmas Eve's Feast of the Seven Fishes is, by Italian Catholic tradition, supposed to be a penitential meal, and it may be, depending on your view of eel, smelt, anchovies and snails.

What is the significance of the Feast of the Seven Fishes? There's no real consensus on what the seven fishes signify—some people claim the number seven symbolizes the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church while others say it's meant to represent the seven days of the week or the seven hills of Rome.

Festa dei Sette Pesci (The Feast of Seven Fishes)

Like many Italian traditions, the origin and rules are debated. The seven fish dishes refer to the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic church, or the seven days it took God to make the Universe, or the seven virtues, or the seven deadly sins. Some Italians celebrate with 13 dishes for the 12 apostles plus Jesus.

Made in America

To the surprise and shock of many Italian-Americans, the long-held holiday meal tradition in which seven different seafood dishes are served on Christmas Eve is virtually unknown to most Italians living in Italy.