Buon Natale! How Italians Do Christmas

In Italy, the festivities and culinary traditions really begin on Christmas Eve. Italian families come together for the Feast of the Seven Fishes to celebrate the arrival of Christ by abstaining from meat. The menu will typically be seafood and vegetables; eel or carp perhaps, or spaghetti with squid ink, polished off by sweet treats such as biscotti and enriched panettone.

The next day, the Italian Christmas dinner, cena di Natale, lasts for hours and hours pivoting around multiple courses. For Italians, Christmas is the time to bring out foods that have been put away for previous months. Think salamis, pickled peppers, porcini, salty olives, tiny onions or artichokes home-preserved in oil and parsley. The feast may kick off with platters of antipasti, follow with a pasta dish at some point and finish with a charcuterie board flowing with dried meats, olives and cheese.

Here are six recipes to inspire for an Italian Christmas. Prego.

Anolini In Brodo

BBC

Image by Città di Parma/CC BY-SA

Inspired by her Italian roots, Michelin-starred chef Angela Hartnett opts for authentic northern Italian pasta on Christmas Day. ‘I like anolini, which isn’t really Christmassy in terms of an English Christmas, but it’s an Italian Christmas speciality. It is pasta balls like little dumplings stuffed with veal and beef and you serve them in a broth. We always have them on Christmas Day.’ It’s comforting but not comfort food.

Beef Tartare With Truffle Caviar

Great Italian Chefs

Christmas Day is a time for Italians to display their culinary prowess by producing course after course of delicacies. A fantastic starter for an such a feast is Marco Stabile’s beef tartare with truffle caviar. He lightly marinates beef fillet in pilsner lager, then serves with a dollop of black truffle caviar for an earthy finish.

Spinach Ricotta Ravioli

Delallo

During Christmas, Italians prepare dishes that have been passed down from generation to generation. What they eat depends on the region. In Northern Italy, baked pasta dishes like lasagne or filled pasta like ravioli and manicotti is deemed traditional Christmas fare. Make your own pasta dough and roll it out thinly before filling each square for this DIY cheesy stuffed ravioli by Italian food expert Delallo.

Osso Buco

Simply Recipes

Often an Italian Christmas feast will be quite meat heavy so could include something like Osso Buco, an Italian dish of braised veal shanks. The beauty of this recipe is that it can be made in advance and frozen for up to three months. Here, the secret ingredient is pancetta (usurping the more traditional choice of olive oil) which adds a lovely deep flavour. Garnish with gremolata (parsley, lemon zest and garlic).

Panettone

The Spruce Eats

Typically served during Christmas throughout Italy is panettone, a large sweetened bread based dessert filled with candied peels and dried fruits. Pull by hand or slice this beauty paired with butter, cream or fruit preserves or eat alone. You’ll need a metal panettone baking tin or a paper panettone case for this recipe which keeps well in an airtight tin for a week.

Florentine

Delicious Magazine

We’ve got the Italians to thank for sharing their recipe for these chewy yet crunchy treats. These easy-to-make florentines are richly packed with stem ginger, candied peel, almonds and cranberries, then finished off with a lick of dark chocolate.