So just watched the 2019 Movie Feast Of The Seven Fishes, one of the nicer, more well-thought-out and least-kitschy of the plethora of Christmas movies that have come out lately. I can definitely recommend the movie, a comedy/character study of a young man caught between a new love interest and an old flame in the context of joining his Italian family on the night before Christmas for their Feast of the Seven Fishes.
In real life, The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian-American tradition for Christmas Eve, when Roman Catholics celebrate the midnight birth of Jesus, known in Italian as “La Viglia.” Fish is a traditional basis for the Christmas Eve dinner because custom discourages eating red meat leading up to the holiday.
We are not Catholic by any stretch (practicing, anyway). We had a couple over last night, whom we hadn’t seen in a month or so, so I took the opportunity to make a fish dish I’ve come to love, and I thought I’d share the recipe with you.
- Pour a glass of rose for yourself. Sample judiciously during cooking.
- Start with a large pan or cook pot, preferably 4-6 inches deep, that you can use on a stovetop. Turn it to medium-low, say 3 out of 10 for the heat.
- Dice one medium to large onion and 4-5 cloves of garlic. Have a 22-oz can of diced tomatoes, dried oregano, dried basil, salt, pepper, a bottle of good-quality dry rose, and 4 tilapia filets ready to go.
- When the pan just starts to warm, add 3-4 tablespoons of butter and 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil. Melt the butter.
- When the butter starts to bubble a little, add the onions and stir to coat with the butter and oil. Sautee for 10 minutes or so until they’re starting to really soften up. Try to prevent browning. If a little browning occurs, reduce the heat. Add the garlic and continue sauteeing. I usually go for about 20 minutes until the onions are just past al dente.
- Towards the end of sauteeing the onions, add dried oregano, basil, and a few grinds of black pepper to taste. Sautee these with the onions.
- When the onions start to look a bit dry, add the can of tomatoes, juice and all. Stir to thoroughly mix. Increase heat to around 5 out of 10 to get the sauce gently boiling/bubbling. Add more oregano, basil, pepper and salt to taste.
- When the juice in the tomatoes cooks down and the sauce looks a bit dry, add 1-2 cups of the rose. Mix to incorporate, and cook the liquid down until the sauce is thick but not dry. Turn the heat to Low (1 out of 10).
- Add the tilapia. Do your best to cover the fish with the sauce. (You can remove ½ the sauce, put the fish on the remaining sauce, and cover the fish with the removed sauce.)
- Cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid, and cook on low for about 20 minutes, or until the fish is done.
- Refill your rose glass if needed. Serve the fish topped with sauce immediately.
Hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!