From the Author

  • "All I wanted to do was write a little romantic comedy about my family cooking fish on Christmas Eve. Little did I know what I'd unleashed - an acclaimed graphic novel, a festival, a movie - and now a blog - dedicated to keeping the traditions of our Italian ancestors alive..."
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A great radio show

A few years ago, when the Feast of the Seven Fishes first came out in book form, I was lucky enough to be a guest on the Good Food radio program on my favorite Los Angeles radio station, KCRW.  I just came across the link to that particular episode and thought I'd post it here  - and be sure to check out other episodes - it's a great show.

Italian Chocolate Cookies

This just in from our good friend, Carol Wheatley, courtesy of her friend, Chris Coppolino who contributed it to the Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook.  Carol is a great friend - we loved seeing her at the Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival - as well as the wife of Mark Wheatley, my collaborator on a number of comic projects like EZ STREET and LONE JUSTICE.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/3 c sugar
  • 2/3 c vegetable oil
  • 6 oz chocolate chips, melted
  • ½ c cold, strong coffee
  • Grated rind of one lemon
  • Grated rind of one orange
  • 4 ½ c flour
  • 2 tbsp cocoa
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 1 tbsp cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 c toasted almonds or walnuts, chopped

Frosting

  • ¾ lb confectioner’s sugar
  • 3 tbsp cocoa
  • 2 tbsp vanilla
  • 2 tbsp soft butter
  • ¼ c milk (approximately)


Instructions

Beat eggs, sugar and oil together. Add chocolate, coffee, and lemon and orange rinds. Stir in dry ingredients and the nuts.  Chill dough until firm, for several hours or overnight.  Shape into balls the size of a walnut and brake on greased cookie sheets at 325 degrees for about 15 mins. Cool, then frost.


Frosting: Stir confectioners sugar and cocoa together; add vanilla and butter and mix well.  Add ¼ milk, more if needed to reach spreading consistency, and beat until smooth.

Makes about 75

Contributed by Chris Coppolino to the Wellesley Cookie Exchange Cookbook

The Feast is on

We are anticipating a somewhat less raucous party this year - several family members cannot get into town for one reason or another - and we've already brought our A-game to the Festival a couple weeks ago.  So we're taking it somewhat easy - though that's a relative term when you're married to Shannon.  Tonight's menu:

  • Anchovies sauteed in garlic and olive oil, then served on fresh bread with provolone layered on top.
  • Tuna pasta
  • Something Shannon found called Italian street pasta.  More on that later - although there will be grilled shrimp served over it - I believe.
  • Whiting salad - although whiting is an ever-present tradition in my family this is a new dish.
  • Smelt - rolled in flour, salt and pepper and then fried in oil and hot pepper seeds in a cast iron skillet.
  • Deep fried baccala fritters.
  • Raw oysters and clams.

Excuse me.  I can't type anymore.  I've got to go get something to eat.
PS - we're going to try and get more stuff up today - including the festival recipes which did not get posted for technical reasons.  In the event we don't get back - Buon Natale!

Grilled Polenta with sausage and peppers in tomato sauce recipe

Okay, so it's not fish.  But when our pals Kevin Sansalone and Jay Rogers showed up at the Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival serving grilled polenta we begged them to share - and they were kind enough to do so...here's Kevin:

Grilled Polenta with sausage and peppers in tomato sauce recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 c. cornmeal
  • 6 1/2 to 7 1/2 c. water
  • 1 tbs salt
  • 1 tbs butter

Instructions

Bring water to boil add salt.  Reduce water to simmer.  Stream cornmeal
slowly into simmering water.  Simmer stirring constantly for 20 minutes.
Add butter and stir until melted.  Pour onto platter or board, let cool, cut
into serving pieces and grill until grill marks form on each side.
Alternatively, it can be poured/spooned into individual plates and eaten
hot.  In ether event before eating,  spoon a desired amount of sauce,
peppers and sausage (below) onto polenta and sprinkle with grated Romano
cheese or Parmesan cheese if desired.

Sauce, peppers and sausage

  • 1 quart tomato sauce
  • 1 small onion chopped
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • Olive oil
  • Salt to taste

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil till golden in a 3 quart sauce pan.  Add
sauce to pan. Rinse can or jar with 1/2 c water and add to pan.    Add 1 lb
cooked  medium hot sausage cut into bite size rounds with all or some of the
cooking juices from sausage.

Simmer for 3/4 to 1 hour until sauce is reduced.

Add 1 pint peppers and sauce- Oliverio/ Demus style (hot, medium or mixed)
heat peppers through.  Correct salt to taste.

Serve hot over polenta.
 

Polenta-preparation

Polenta

Tau Kappa Epsilon a Big Help to the Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival

A big thank-you to the actives and alumni of Fairmont State University’s Theta-Delta Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon for all their hard work on behalf of the 2009 Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival.  Topping the list of thank-you’s: Porter Stiles, chapter adviser (and my pledge brother when I went active in the chapter a long time ago).  Also on hand was legendary chapter adviser Frank Pulice, Jr. – who also happens to be the godson of my late great-grandmother, Isabella Oliverio – a prime inspiration for not only my book but my love of our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. It was Frank who, back in our college days, pushed us to practice public service in the community, and Porter is carrying on that tradition with the current actives.  The boys worked hard helping us setting up the street and then acted as servers during the Festival Cucina cooking demonstrations. And then there’s the alumni – many of them volunteer or man booths (including Vince Libonati and Eve of Seven Fishes’ author Robert Germano who both cook at the Cucina)and there’s a large number who show up in support of the event – and can be counted on to boost sales of food and drink. On behalf of everyone involved with the festival I want to say thanks again to the TKEs of Theta-Delta Chapter.

Tau-kappa-epsilon

2009 Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival A Huge Success

We had amazing weather, which no doubt helped, but also I think the Festival finally hit the “tipping point.” It was absolutely wonderful – especially the food. We’ll be posting pictures , recipes and video in the days and weeks ahead – for starters here are a few images to whet your appetite.

Feast-of-the-seven-fishes-festival
 
Feast-of-the-seven-fishes-festival4
Feast-of-the-seven-fishes-festival3

2009 Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival Video

Thanks to James Tevlin and Wes Adamson, both students at the Factory Digital Filmmaking Program at Douglas Education Center in Monessen, PA, we have some great video of the festival. I as wrote a few days ago, they are preparing a documentary on the festival as a class project. They were kind enough to throw together a little cross-section of shots from their footage. I should also give a shout-out to Chuck Gellak, who is a student at the Tom Savini Make-up Effects Program - also at Douglas. Chuck was on-hand to take many of the stills you'll be seeing from the festival (covering for our veteran art director/photographer Mike Anderson, who is busy these as a new father). While I'm doling out the thanks I don't want to forget the other students who traveled to Fairmont to help out - Mike Berry, Chris Passaga, Aaron Shelton, and Anthony Vingas. They assisted not only with the documentary but also volunteered to help with setting up and breaking down the event. Hope you enjoy the video...

Getting ready for the Feast of the Seven Fishes Festival

Last year, I was very ill during the Festival and as a result my blog entries suffered greatly.  This year - in addition to feeling better - I'm happy to report that we'll be posting some quality video of the event.  Students from the documentary class at the The Factory Digital Filmmaking Program at the Douglas Education Center in Monessen, PA are descending on the Festival on Saturday, December 13th, armed with multiple cameras and a lot of talent.  Their intention is to create a ten-to-twelve minute documentary of the Festival.  In the interim they'll be supplying us with some clips to post - particularly from the Festival Cucina cooking demonstrations - starting next week.  So if you can't visit the Festival in person, drop back by the blog and enjoy a bit of the experience vicariously.

Fante's

This just in from my younger brother Galen - one of the usual suspects destroying our kitchen every December 24th in pursuit of the Feast. And when it comes to Fante's I second everything he says here!

Bob

"

It is almost Christmas and I am looking forward to my trip to Fante’s in the heart of south Philadelphia, PA. to do a little gift shopping for friends and relatives. Since arriving in the area 12 years ago, I have found it a great place to shop for all who enjoy cooking and I truly enjoy my interaction with the staff. Located in the famous Italian Market area of south Philadelphia, Fante’s is a treasure trove of cookware. If you are not fortunate enough to be in the area and still want to take advantage of Fante’s enormous inventory , visit their website at www.fantes.com . Since Feast of the Seven Fishes came out, Fante’s has regularly stocked the book and been one of our biggest supporters. So thanks Mariella and crew - we'll see you in a couple weeks!

"

Recipe for Pumpkin Tortelli (Tortelli di zucca)

Ingredients for the filling:

  • 1 kilogram of yellow sweet pumpkin (if you cannot get it, use butternut, Hubbard or acorn squash, or sweet potato instead)
  • 6 spoons of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese shredded
  • Salt
  • Nutmeg
  • Lemon juice or grated skin
  • 6 amaretto cookies pulverized
  • 100 grams of breadcrumbs (possibly oven roasted)
  • oil
  • Optional: Syrup of Cremona’s mustard (preserve made from candied fruit in grape must or sugar with mustard)

Ingredients for the pasta dough:

  • 200 grams of white flour 00
  • 2 eggs
  • salt
  • oil

Ingredients for the sauce:

  • 100 grams of butter
  • 6 spoons of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese shredded
  • Sage leaves

How to prepare the filling:

Prepare filling up to 2 days in advance, but definitely before pasta is rolled out. Remove the seeds from the pumpkin, do not take away the peel, slice it and roast the slices in the oven until soft.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Arrange the pumpkin in a roasting pan, sprinkle with rock salt, drizzle with the oil, cover with foil, and bake for about for 45-50 minutes, or until tender when pierced with the point of a knife. Alternatively, boil the pumpkin in hot and salted water until it become soft.

Remove from the oven or boiled water, allow to cool enough to handle, then scrape the pumpkin flesh from the skin. Place the flesh in a muslin cloth or a fine sieve and hang overnight above a bowl in a cool place to drain off all the excess liquid. If you are in a rush, wait for the filling to cool down before processing it.

Mash the pumpkin pulp. You might want to place the pumpkin in a food processor and blend until smooth. Or, you can mix manually. When the pumpkin is mashed, add the ingredients (Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese shredded, amaretto cookies pulverized, breadcrumbs, and eventually the syrup of Cremona’s mustard). Season to taste with lemon juice or grated skin, nutmeg, salt and pepper. If you are using a food processor, pulse-blend to combine until the stuffing is homogeneous. Mix well and taste. Filling should also be fairly firm and loosely hold together when formed in ball. If not, add up to 2 tb breadcrumbs.

How to prepare the pasta dough:

Mix the flour and salt together and tip on to a work surface or board. Make a well in the center. Mix together the eggs and oil and pour two-thirds into the well, reserving the rest. Starting from the outside, work the flour into the liquid until a dough forms. The dough is conditioned by its environment, so depending on the warmth of your kitchen and hands, you may need to add the remaining egg mixture if the dough does not come together. Knead until it is smooth, firm and elastic (this will take 5-10 minutes). Wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 1 hour before using. The dough will keep for up to 24 hours in the fridge if wrapped tightly first in cling film and then in foil.

Pastamaker 

Pasta

How to prepare Tortelli

Divide the dough in quarters and work with 1 portion at a time, keeping rest tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. Knead and roll out on pasta machine to next-to-thinnest setting.

Roll out and cut up the pasta dough (cut into 3-4 pieces, use a rolling pin to flatten a piece to the width of your pasta machine. Run it twice through the narrowest notch. Using a serrated pastry wheel, cut into a long strip 10cm wide.

Put 1 heaped teaspoon of filling at 2cm intervals along each strip of pasta. Fold over the long side of pasta nearest to you. Cup your hand and carefully press down around each mound to get all the air out. Using a serrated pastry wheel, cut out individual tortelli about 3cm square. Diagonally fold over 1 corner of rectangle to meet opposite corner to form "paper hat".

Set aside on floured kitchen towel and repeat until all dough is used up. Froze the tortelli before cooking them, it is the best way to prevent them to stick together when cooking.

Tortelli

Make sure that sage leaves are dry. Place the butter in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat, whisking vigorously to stop the mixture splitting. Add 3 whole leaves of sage. When the sage leaves are brown, take them away and save to garnish the plate. Chop 3 sage leaves, add in the boiling butter and immediately switch off the fire.    

 

Cooking instruction

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add frozen tortelli in boiling water and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until pasta is cooked. Cooking time really depends on the thickness of pasta but in any case pay attention not to overcook them. Remove with slotted spoon, working carefully to avoid breaking pasta. Drain the tortelli, place in a warm serving dish.

 

How to serve Tortelli

Drain and serve, drizzled with the sage butter. Add the sage leaves just before serving. Sprinkle heated serving dish with Parmigiano-Reggiano. Toss gently. Buon appetito!!!


Tortellifinal


Nutrition Facts

Each serving approximately contains about:

  • 274 calories;
  • 115 mg sodium;
  • 105 mg cholesterol;
  • 11 grams fat.
  • 37 grams carbs.
  • 8 grams protein.
  • 1.44 grams fiber.