Pasta of the Seven Fishes

It's a grand Italian tradition to have the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. (For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feast_of_the_Seven_Fishes.) Many still keep this tradition alive and make seven distinct seafood dishes on Christmas Eve like my Grandmother used to do. I've never had the time or bandwith to go all out and prepare the seven dishes, though I hold out hope of doing so someday.  But I've improvised in the past with a delicious pasta dish made with a light tomato sauce with seven different types of fish/seafood in it. It's an easy meal to make, and doesn't need to be saved for simply Christmas Eve. Proportions below are for 6 people

Ingredients:

1/4 pound of small shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1/2 pound mussels
1/2 pound small clams
1/4 pound small scallops
1/4 pound of calamari (rings and tentacles)
1/4 pound salmon
1/4 pound firm white fish like halibut or sea bass
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1 medium onion, diced
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper
2 tbs. each of fresh Italian parsely and basil, minced
1 cup dry white wine
3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound of pasta

Before making the sauce, steam open the clams and mussels and remove the meat from them. If any of the shells do not open after being steamed for 5 minutes, throw them out. Also, have all your seafood pre-prepped -- it should all be cut into bite sized pieces if it's not already small enough to eat in one bite.

Heat the olive oil in a very large skillet or sauce pan, and saute the onion and garlic until translucent. Turn up the heat and immediately add the white wine and let it boil and reduce by one half. Once that happens, add the crushed tomatoes, pepper and 1/2 of the herbs and once it starts to boil, reduce it to low heat.

Once this is done, bring the pasta water to a boil and add your pasta. 5 minutes before the pasta is done, add the fish to the sauce (which should still be on low heat). After another minute, add the scallops. One minute later add the shrimp. and then one minute later add the calamari.

Before draining the pasta, take 1 cup of pasta water from the pot and hold it aside. Drain the pasta, return it to the pot, and then pour the sauce over it, adding the already cooked mussels and clams to it. Toss this all together for about a minute, adding some pasta water if needed to thin out the sauce a bit.

Place it all in a large serving bowl and garnish with the remaining 1/2 of fresh herbs.  As with my note following the Linquine Al Vongole recipe, serving grated cheese with this dish isn't terribly authentic, but if you like it that way, go for it!




Buon appetito and Buon Natale!