Feast of the Seven Fishes highlights Italian family tradition in Western Pa.
Dinnertime, for an Italian family, is sacred.
It’s an opportunity to gather around the table, share a meal, drink some good wine and engage in great conversation.
The spread on Christmas Eve represents the heart of this tradition. The Feast of the Seven Fishes — for which seven seafood items are prepared — has been handed down through generations. It’s a rite of passage for some families who share recipes created by grandparents and parents.
“It’s a time to be together in the kitchen,” said Anthony DiPietro, owner of DeLallo Italian Marketplace in Jeannette. “Making the meal is as important as enjoying it. It doesn’t matter if you bake it or fry the fish. What matters is that you do it together.”
Where it began
The Feast of the Seven Fishes is one of Italian culture’s most treasured traditions, according to the website for Italian Sons and Daughters of America.
It is loosely based on Italy’s “cena della Vigilia,” which means Christmas Eve dinner. The tradition can be traced to the early 1900s, as millions of Southern Italian immigrants steamed across the Atlantic and started lives in America, according to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Oakland.
Sydney Dominick, a gallery experience presenter for the museum, wrote that it stems from immigrants who were homesick for the land they left behind. The sea was a representation of the connection between their home country and the U.S.
Typically, the most popular fish and seafood are baccala, sardines, smelts, shrimp, lobster, mussels, octopus, eels, scallops, anchovies and clams. Which items to include is evolving, said John M. Viola of New York City, a regional vice president for the Italian Sons and Daughters of America in New York and cohost and executive producer of the Italian American podcast.
“It’s about passing on the tradition to the next generation,” said Viola, who learned how to cook from his grandparents. “It can be the perfect opportunity to bring the kids along to shop for the fish. It’s both a regional Italian thing and an American thing. It’s evolved.”
Fond memories
The tradition takes people back in time, Viola said. When they see and smell the food, he said, it triggers fond memories. As part of the modern transformation of the observance, people are including more high-end choices, such as lobster and crab legs.
Having more to choose from definitely is part of the meal’s evolution, said Shawn Cessna of McKees Rocks. He is general manager of the Western Edge Seafood Outlet in Greensburg and Washington, Washington County.
“The beauty of the seven fishes is people make them the way they like them,” Cessna said. “And some people change the menu from year to year because there are so many options available. But they still keep the tradition with things such as the flavorings of orange slices and paprika.”
He said one of his customers planned to make seafood lasagna, and another will buy crab cakes, roll them in a log and stuff them with calamari.
Most of the fish Western Edge sells is frozen. On Wednesday, Cessna said, business was so brisk, a lot of that product was going straight from the truck to the customer.
Fazio’s Italian Foods in Arnold will sell 500 pounds of fish on Christmas Eve, said Richard Thimons of Brackenridge, who manages the store for his son, Richard Thimons Jr. of Harrison. The elder Thimons said Fazio’s is known for its fresh hand-breaded and battered Atlantic Cod.
“The Italian tradition is so important,” he said, “whether it’s made in our store or in your home.”
Abstaining from meat
Seafood often is eaten instead of meat on holidays in homes that observe traditional Roman Catholic customs. The number seven stems from its biblical significance: the creation of the world in seven days and the seven sacraments.
Wholey’s in Pittsburgh’s Strip District was packed with customers Tuesday.
Co-owner Sam Wholey said, in Italy, for those who lived near the ocean, fish were plentiful and affordable. Many of the favorites were shrimp, eel, baccala, squid or calamari, clams, mussels and smelts.
“Fish is very versatile,” Wholey said. “It has wonderful flavor profiles.”
Chef Rezero “Rizzi” DeFabo at Rizzo’s Malabar Inn in Crabtree said the region of Italy from which his family hails — Cercemaggiore — is a “sister city” to Greensburg, where Italian immigrants came to live.
DeFabo said “one slice of Italian heritage is Christmas Eve dinner.”
“I say on Christmas Eve (that) frying pans of all shapes and sizes will be on the stove,” DeFabo said. “The Feast of Seven Fishes is a tradition passed through many generations. It was a tradition that was lost for a while, but it’s making a comeback.
“Grandma and Grandpa may have passed away, but, with the pandemic, people have come back home again to be with family and friends. The world slowed down a little bit, and we have gone back to simpler times where we make our own food at home.”
The next generation
DeFabo said younger generations put their own twist on what is served. Instead of seven individual items, they incorporate a few into a salad or stew. Some add seafood to pasta dishes.
DiPietro said he plans to prepare at the store some of the fish he will serve to his family because they will be working. He said baccala is a mainstay of the seven fishes. He recalled eating eel as a child but said it is too time-consuming to make.
“I tell my kids they have to eat some baccala or Santa Claus won’t come,” DiPietro said. “That gets them to at least try it.”
Wholey’s sells more than 100 varieties of fish from places such as Virginia, Massachusetts, Iceland, Costa Rica, Scotland, Portugal, the Mediterranean, Portugal, Alaska, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior and more, co-owner Dan Wholey said.
“I love this Italian tradition,” he said. “And it’s not just an Italian tradition. It’s become a Pittsburgh tradition. The silver lining of the pandemic is that it has brought families together. We have people come here who tell us they remember coming here with their grandparents.”
Mary Wallace and Pam Cantalamessa of Uniontown have been making the trip to Wholey’s for nearly 10 years. Their families join together on Christmas Eve to make a seven fishes meal in memory of their fathers, Roger Palladino and Tom Marano.
They serve lobster, scallops, shrimp, cod, crab, calamari and clams and tuna in pasta.
“It’s a deep, deep, deep Italian tradition,” Cantalamessa said. “Coming to Wholey’s has become a tradition.”
Sam Miceli of Charleroi was shopping at Wholey’s this week. His mother, Concetta Miceli, inspired him to appreciate the tradition.
“My mom did baccala, smelts, shrimp, pasta with sardines, flounder, calamari and some other pastas as well as … cannoli,” he said. “We always had cannoli.”
Henry Dewey, co-owner of Penn Avenue Fish Co. in the Strip District, said he planned to work overnight Wednesday into Thursday to fill orders. Christmas 2020 was his best ever. His market sells 35 types of fish.
“I went to an Italian friend’s house for Christmas Eve once, and it was amazing,” Dewey said. “I tell people they have to pace themselves because this is a big meal with many courses.”
JoAnne Klimovich Harrop is a TribLive reporter covering the region's diverse culinary scene and unique homes. She writes features about interesting people. The Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist began her career as a sports reporter. She has been with the Trib for 26 years and is the author of "A Daughter's Promise." She can be reached at jharrop@triblive.com.
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