Italian Christmas Foods – An Food Guide to an Italian Christmas
At this point in the holiday frenzy, you’re either preparing to host a holiday party or you’ve been invited to a Christmas Eve / Day dinner or lunch. If you’ve been invited to dinner then get down on your knees and pray the host can cook! If you’re hosting Christmas eve dinner (or the overused “Feast of the Seven Fishes”) or Christmas Day lunch or dinner, then you can control what you both serve your guests and the quality of the ingredients!
In Italy, Christmas food is about what’s available (or local) in your region so you see items from specialized baked pasta dishes or cheese filled pasta such as agnolotti, ravioli or tortellini to a light soup or brodo and roasted wild game such as goat, rabbit, boar, etc. to various fish, including eel and salted cod. In the north, Cotechino or New Year’s Sausage is popular as are various side dishes including including, broccoli, potatoes, zucchini and eggplants. For dessert, which Italians traditional do not consume, you’ll find Panettone, Pandoro and/or Pandolce, Torrone,
Are you hungry yet? If so, get cooking!
Appetizers / Antipasto
- 12 small plate or Christmas appetizer ideas
- Focaccia with Rosemary and Sea Salt – good bread is a nice way to complement any appetizer. Focaccia would work well but you can also try making any number of our bread recipes!
- Bruschetta with just about any topping you can imagine!
- Salumi, Salame, Cured Pork – any way you slice it (no pun intended!) you must have a bit of prosciutto or cacciatore.
- Antipasto Plate – including cheese, olives, sun dried tomatoes, roasted peppers, etc.
- Arancini (see our recipe), calzoncini, potato croquets (see our recipe) or other fried delicacies
- Grilled Eggplant – a great way to get the appetite going.
Traditional Dishes, including Entries, Pastas and Side Dishes:
- Lasagna – a classic that everyone enjoys (and stuffed pasta is a tradition from Toscana to Sicilia)
- Baked Clams Oreganata
- Linguine with Clams or Spaghettini with Fish Sauce
- Fisherman’s Linguine (Calabrian Style)
- Tortellini in Brodo
- Mussels in Spicy Tomato/Wine Sauce – buy great fish and you can’t go wrong.
- Baked Flounder
- Fried Sardines – one of our favorite fish and a classic in Calabria.
- Fried Smelts
- Fried Calamari
- Stuffed Squid or Calamari
- Scallops in Tomato Sauce
- Potato and String Beans in Tomato Sauce
- Roasted Broccoli – we make these spicy with breadcrumbs and good olive oil.
- Baccala (courtesy of Memorie di Angelina)
- Pan Simmered Baby Goat
- Roasted Rabbit – don’t be intimidated or insulted, rabbit is wonderful.
- Sauteed Swiss Chard
- What wine should I buy? – understanding wine is easier than cooking great food!
- Introduction to wine and wine basics
- Eleven basic wine questions
- Seven basic red wines – red wines are perfect for the holiday season
- Wines of Calabria
- Italian wine guide
- Amari
Great post, but who said that we do not consume our desserts??? Are you kidding??? At the end of a big meal we will always have Panettone, Pandoro, paste and much more!!!
Hi Monica,
I should have been more specific, most of our southern Italian family members (including our family specifically) usually do not consume dessert after a standard meal. Do you have dessert after every dinner?
Thanks for the nice words!
Vince
Such a great post!!! I have to back up Monica here, desserts are important in Christmas! Think about torrone or panetone… even if you are too full to eat them right after all the other stuff you will probably snack on them sooner or later during the evening 😉
Absolutely, as we talk about in the article above dessert is a part of any Italian Christmas:
Desserts
Torrone
Paneforte
Italian pastries
Chestnuts
I was referring to reoccurring dessert, which in my experience is more tied to fruit then something sweet (again for every day / night consumption).