Photo credit: Todd Coleman
Every time my family and I get together, there is a spread of food. I always seem to ask why some certain dish or food is eaten. The answer is always the same, “Us eye-talians eat it.” The one gathering and spread of food I have always wondered about is the Christmas Eve meal.
My family,
like other Italian families, only eats fish on Christmas Eve, and if you count
the number of different fish, it always comes out to seven. As I went through
high school and became more and more interested in Italian culture, I looked
into the reason as to why only seven fish are eaten. What I have
come across is that Italian-American families only eat fish on Christmas Eve
because of the belief of abstaining from eating milk or meat products, which
comes from the Catholic Church. This is the same as during Lent when meat is
not eaten on Fridays or Wednesdays, though that is practiced by all Catholics,
not just Italians. The number seven is believed to represent the “seven
sacraments” in the Bible.
The tradition
is very popular in Italy as well as in America. My family traditionally eats
calamari, clams, crab, shrimp, baccalá (cod fish), sometimes some type of
lobster, and salmon.
Of course
there are other dishes that my family eats. For an appetizer, we sometimes have
anise and oil. Anise is a type of plant that has a licorice- like flavor. To
eat it, you dip the anise in the oil. There is also risotto, a type of rice
that is cooked a creamy consistency in broth. There is of course the ever so
popular “macaroni and gravy.” My family, along with several Italian-Americans
in the Boston area, call it gravy, but it’s actually a red tomato sauce that is
slow cooked with meatballs and pork inside. These dishes are traditions brought
over from Italy by my Mastrocola ancestors about 75 years ago.
Food is one of
the biggest Italian traditions that my family still keeps up with. There are of
course other little things, but we mainly stick to food. My family comes from a
small village in Abruzzi, so our traditions may differ from other
Italian-American families. I have already learned so much about Italy,
but I continue to learn more from my family and from my grandfather.
by Katelyn Mastrocola
Great post! I really liked how you talked about your own families dishes, because coming from an Italian family as well, i can relate to what your talking about. A lot of times i eat dinners with my polish family, and even with them, there are a lot of traditional meals we have.
ReplyDeleteI'm not even Italian and my family follows many of the traditions, especially the Catholic ones, that you described. I always loved the feast of the seven fishes.
ReplyDeleteIt's very interesting to see that your family incorporates the various food styles from their Italian heritage into their own cooking, I know my family is part Greek and they do that a lot. I also like how you tied in the religious aspect, because it's true that religion has had a big impact on certain cultures- especially with Italy and Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever asked your family if some of the dishes you eat are family recipes passed down through the generations? My dad's side of the family is full-blown Canadian and I know that our turkey stuffing is a family recipe, some of the ingredients we use are cultural, but it has also been tailored by my grandmother. It might be neat to see how your family cooks it versus the mainstream recipe in Italy.
ReplyDeleteJillian Cormier
It's great that you can connect the religious aspects to the cultural ones in Italian cooking. I am not Catholic or Italian and my family comes from a big mix of backgrounds so I haven't been exposed to traditional cooking. It's nice to read about how tradition has been maintained in modern families.
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of people that celebrate the feast of the seven fishes on Christmas Eve and I was always curious as to what the significance is to the seven different kinds and now I know.
ReplyDelete