Feast of the Seven Fish

The Super Bowl of our family’s culinary gatherings is Christmas Eve. Italian-Americans celebrated the Christmas holiday warmup with 7 different seafood dishes (the term “fish” is used liberally), and our family has kept that tradition going annually for the last 20 or so years. Initially devised as a observant Catholic meal (abstinence from meat on eve’s of certain holidays), this has become Dad Calabrese’s time to shine in the kitchen and honor his past relatives. He revives recipes that have been handed down for generations and reflect the hard times our forefathers dealt with. Foods like baccala, squid, and smelts were cheap and accessible to struggling families. These foods are smelly and take a long time to prepare. But when cooked properly, they’re crowd pleasers. Our father had gone out of his way to involve us in the preparing (e.g., ripping spines out of smelts), cooking (e.g., getting elbows deep in fry oil), & history of this great meal tradition. It’s a feast that we enjoy with our extended family and love just as much sharing with those new to it. So this year, we’re wanting to pass along some great seafood pasta recipes with our Cucina Calabrese supporters. Each of the 7 days before Christmas, we’re posting on social media a recipe that integrates our pasta with 7 different seafood items to inspire your own 7 Fish Feast. Some are classics, others are modern. We’d love to see your recipe ideas as well. Mangia, Mangia! Buon Natale!

FISH #1 - Crab

Ingredients:

-2 Bags of Chesapeake Bay Blend Pasta (purchase some online via che

sapeakegiftbaskets.com)

-8oz of crab meat (Lump if you’re feeling saucy!)

-Cup of chopped sweet peppers

-Pinch of minced garlic

-Olive oil

Cooking Instructions (just basics here):

-Sautee your peppers to desired tenderness

-Add crab to sautee just to warm it up

-Toss with boiled & drained pasta