Recipe: Baccalà with Tomatoes

By Michelle Fabio

A popular southern Italian Christmas Eve tradition carried on by Italians all over the world is the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

The number seven represents the seven sacraments, seven days of creation, or simply the fact that seven signifies perfection in the Bible.

And the fish?

Well that’s because Catholics aren’t supposed to eat meat on the Vigilia di Natale.

Popular fishes in the feast include calamari, smelt, clams, and shrimp, but my favorite is baccalà: dried, salted cod.

To reconstitute the fish, you soak it for two days, changing the water three or four times, a nice ritual that increases the anticipation of a delicious Christmas Eve dinner with each change of the water.

Here is a recipe for baccalà typical of Calabria in southern Italy: Read the rest of this entry »