Roman Christmas Dinner Tradition of The Feast of the Seven Fishes

It seems every family has a certain traditional Christmas Dinner meal. For some it is a turkey as in Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol, for others it may be leg of lamb or roast reef. For this Christmas Eve, Southampton financier Paul Kushner promised his guests something special, he promised to personally cook the old Roman Christmas Eve "Feast of the Seven Fishes." With a Sicilian twist.

So I researched the origin of "The Feast of the Seven Fishes," and found out that it dates back to Roman times. Back then in the infant days of the Holy Roman Catholic Church all the religious faithful feasted on fish the night before Christmas.They sampled clams, mussels, squid etc. I recall when no-one could eat meat on Fridays when I was I child pre-Vatican II (1963-64). However the Romans in 400 A.D. abstained from meat products and ate seafood on Christmas Eve and the night before other holidays such as Easter Sunday.

Paul Kushner has a gift for creating high quality Italian cuisine. He could easily be a master chef but his main talent lies in finance where he is successful, however his passion is in the culinary world. As we assembled Christmas Eve 2017 around his dinner table set for 16, Paul and his lovely wife retired Doctor Barbara Nichols-kushner supervised the serving of the "Feast of Seven Fishes." After a wonderful champagne toast the feast began.

First was the serving of Fried Shrimp, Fried Calamari and fish cake balls. Paul had prepared this delicately so that the shrimp melted in your mouth and the fish cake balls were amazing.

The second serving consisted of mushrooms with crabmeat stuffing that Barbara had made. Again delicious!

The third serving was baked clams with squid and seasonal breadcrumbs stuffing along with sautéed lemon New Zealand mussels with a hint of seasoned breadcrumbs. A true winner.

Next the forth serving consisted of a baccala salad. My 100% Italian dad and mother loved their baccala fish especially when in Italy.

Fifth, broiled lobster tails were presented along with drawn butter, this was a favorite for everyone.

Sixth came the octopus prepared by Paul with his measured blend of lemon and oil. Again amazing.

The seventh and last course was Paul's "Fritti di mare fra diavolo" consisting of shrimp, clams,mussels, over a linguine with the Kushner secret light fra diavolo tomato sauce. Along with this serving was a eggplant rollitini prepared by Barbara Nichols-kushner. Again this serving was so very delicious.

The meal was followed by a collection of pastries and chocolates that all of the guest brought from the finest Italian Pastry shops on Long Island.

It truly was a feast, The Christmas Feast of the Seven Fishes!