Of all the Mediterranean food celebrations relating to Christmas, by far the most extraordinary one probably never took place there in the first place. By nearly all accounts, despite many cultural and culinary links to Sicily and the rest of southern Italy, the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve apparently first appeared among immigrants in the United States.

At its most precise, the Feast is a seven-course dinner based on seafood – especially the seafoods beloved by Italian immigrants beginning in the 1880s and continuing through the golden age of “coming to America” into the 1920s. Like many things Italian immigrants did, including decorating their homes extravagantly for Christmas, the Feast had a tendency to be elaborate and, frankly, expensive. The whole idea was to celebrate the sheer abundance of leaving their poverty-stricken villages far behind. In Italy, there had been La Vigilia, or the Vigil, but it was nothing like this.

Even the hit TV series The Bear, about the kitchen staff of a Chicago restaurant with the highest aspirations, included a Feast of the Seven Fishes in a Series 2 flashback, underlining the importance of the occasion in many families’ Christmas food memories. There was also a theatrical-release movie called Feast of the Seven Fishes (subtitled “An Italian Tradition) in 2019.

Though many types and cooking styles of seafood appeared around the United States over the decades, all customized by the many ethnic traditions, the Feast drew upon those seafoods and recipes beloved in southern Italy – birthplace of most who left Italy for America hoping for a new, better life. Among such immigrants, it was easy to come up with seven or more specialties. Favorites include cod, both fresh and dried as baccala, anchovies, whiting, smelts, eel, squid, lobster, octopus, shrimp, mussels and clams. Never fear: pasta, vegetables, baked desserts and plenty of wine come along for the festive family ride.

Lest you wonder how the Feast of Seven Fishes came together in Italian American neighborhoods in cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and New Orleans, search no farther than Roman Catholicism. Christmas Eve was always a day of abstinence, meaning no meat or meat fat was allowed before midnight, Christmas Day. In all such neighborhoods filled with all such Italian families, abstinence never meant doing without something delicious.

In some Italian American families, there was even call for a Feast of Nine Fishes or Twelve Fishes, but that often came down to New World vs. Old. Those with new inclinations saw even more courses as proof of success, respect and prosperity in America, the kind sure to impress anyone remaining back in Santa Such-and-Such that it was wise to cross an ocean in the first place. Yet those with stronger ties to Santa Such-and-Such, especially the elderly, feared that preparing more than Seven Fishes might attract the Almighty’s attention and bring bad luck.

SICILIAN COD WITH TOMATOES, OLIVES & CAPERS

One can picture Sicilian, Calabrian or Neapolitan immigrants turning up someplace like the North End of Boston, where salted and dried baccala was for sale in every Italian market – but also endless tonnage of fresh cod that the very first English pilgrims had enjoyed. This dish came out of the meeting of these minds. Or mouths.

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons kalamata olives, cut in half

2 tablespoons pimento-stuffed green olives, cut in half

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

5 large tomatoes, chopped

1-2 tablespoons capers

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

4 5-6-ounce fresh cod fillets

Salt and black pepper

Lemon pepper

Juice of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a saute pan, heat the olive oil to almost smoking with the two types of olives. After about 2 minutes stir in the onion until caramelized, about 5 minutes, then stir in the minced garlic for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, capers and crushed red pepper, stirring over high heat for about 2 minutes. Spread the sauce across a 9 x 9 baking pan and set the cod fillets on top. Season with salt, pepper and lemon pepper. Squeeze the lemon over the top of the fish. Bake until the cod is cooked through, 12-14 minutes. (You can set under a broiler for 2 minutes for additional browning, if you like.) Serve with sauce spooned over the fish, atop pasta, rice or couscous. Serves 4.