By Jeanine Consoli
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any Italian American families make traditional menus for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Since Christmas Eve is a holy day, most Italian Catholics don't eat meat. My mother always served several sh dishes, including pasta, on Christmas Eve. At my house, the sh dishes would change depending on what my mother wanted to make, but we didn’t eat meat until Christmas Day. On Christmas Day, we would have so much food, you'd think we were feeding the whole neighborhood. We would start with "antipasti" or a charcuterie platter. The next course was lasagna with meat sauce. After the pasta course, a roast would appear complete with all the sides. After a break to clear the dishes and open gifts, the co ee pot went on the stove. The traditional pastries, cookies, fruit, and nuts were laid on the table for dessert when the co ee was ready. It was an event that lasted all day.
Merging Families When I met (and later married) my husband, one of the things that connected us was our shared heritage. We were both Italian and grew up in immigrant households. Both of our dads were rst-generation Americans from Southern Italian families. But my father-in-law's traditional side was set in stone. The meal on Christmas Eve never changed. The sh dishes were always the same ones, prepared the same way. Even the vegetables were fried. The starter was a fried dough ball (think zeppole but not sweet) and a pickled vegetable salad called giardiniera. After the salad, a pasta dish with a sweet lobster sauce came out. And then fried sh and fried vegetables such as cauli ower and asparagus were the sides. After my twins were born, the meal transitioned to our house so that our daughters could wake up
Photos: Merging Families Jeanine and Tony Consoli© Andy Chen.JPG; Christmas Eve with the Consoli family ©Tony Consoli.jpg
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Homemade Pasta On Boxing Day
