PROVIDENCE — Many Rhode Island families who trace their ancestry to Southern Italy gather on Christmas Eve to celebrate La Vigilia, a traditional celebration featuring a festive dinner with seven to nine courses of fresh seafood.
According to Gianfranco Marrocco, owner of Mediterraneo Caffe Restaurant on Federal Hill, Christmas Eve or “Holy Night” is the time of the final vigil before dawn, which brings the birth of Jesus Christ. He added that prior to Christmas Eve, Southern Italians observe a strict fast for 24 hours in accordance with religious beliefs. The fast ends with a meal of seven or nine courses of fresh seafood, which was an abundant and inexpensive staple in the Campania region, where the restaurateur said the tradition began. Meat is never served during the special meal; tuna and sardines are substituted for traditional cold cuts in the antipasti.
“The number seven represents the seven Catholic sacraments and the number nine is a multiple of the Holy Trinity,” said Marrocco. “Seven also alludes to the day of God’s rest and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.”
In Cassino, where Marrocco was born and spent his youth, La Vigilia was based on inexpensive, readily available seafood. The traditional dinner included a baccala salad, fried and battered fish, baked cod, smelts, white anchovies, fried or stuffed calamari and eel.
“If you don’t have eel, it’s not La Vigilia,” Marrocco said, laughing. He added that local wines are served throughout the meal which is celebrated in quiet serenity before everyone attends midnight Mass at the local church.
“Once we came to America, we found gourmet delicacies such as shrimp and lobster,” Marrocco said. “Back in Italy, it was more of a simple peasant dinner.” He added that the meal ended with chestnuts and struffolo (cookies dipped in honey) and other homemade Italian cookies.
Marrocco said that in Italy, families focus on the religious significance of Christmas, instead of turning the birthday of Christ into a commercial frenzy. He recalled that on Christmas Eve, shepherds would come down from the nearby mountains and walk door to door, playing bagpipes. Villagers would thank the musicians by offering then a small glass of wine or giving them a few coins.
“It was a must to watch the papal Christmas Mass,” he remembered, adding that families always invited or delivered food to those less fortunate, the elderly or people alone for the holiday.
Marrocco said it was not unusual to have four generations gathered around the dining room table on Christmas Eve.
“It’s a good time for families to put aside their differences,” he emphasized.
Marrocco recalled a famous Italian expression: “Natale con I tuoi, Pasqua con chi voui.” (You may spend Easter with whomever you please, but Christmas must be spent with family.)
Etta Testa of Cranston remembers the wonderful La Vigilia dinners that her mother Maria Guisseppi used to lovingly prepare for her large family. The meal always had quahogs, shrimp and spaghetti.
“That was a necessity,” she recalled. “My father wanted his macaroni.
“Christmas Eve was my mother’s holiday,” Testa added. “The fisherman always came to the house, The neighbors would wait for him and buy eels, calamari, and other fish. She wouldn’t think of having meat on Christmas Eve.”
The busy grandmother, who carried on the family tradition of preparing a La Vigilia dinner for decades, added that her mother always made wandi and cherry slices, and often baked a “poor man’s cake” made with raisins and candied citron.
“My mother cooked all day Christmas Eve,” Testa said. “She never froze anything.”
She recalled that everyone would play bingo after dinner, before her mother went to midnight Mass at St. Mary Church with some of the children, while other family members washed the dishes. They would attend Mass in the morning before coming home to a Christmas dinner of roast chicken and homemade pasta.
Testa recalled that her mother simmered tangerine peel on the stove to give the home a festive fragrance.
“It smelled like Christmas and it felt like Christmas,” Testa said.
Marrocco said in Italy, the Christmas season begins on December 17 with a novena, and lasts until the Feast of the Epiphany or “La Befama” on January 6.
According to legend, La Befama was a witch who refused to accompany the three wise men on their journey to Bethlehem. However, when the woman remembered the loss of her own baby daughter, Befama gathered gifts for the baby Jesus and flew away on her magical broom in search of him, but never found the Savior.
In Italy, on January 6, children hang their stockings and wait for Befama, who fills them with candy and sweets on her way to search for Jesus. In other parts of the world, people of Italian ancestry exchange small gifts to commemorate the special day.
Recipes courtesy of Mediterraneo Cafee Restaurant
BACCALA ACQUA PAZZA
Baked Cod
(4 servings)
1 large onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup diced fresh tomatoes
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups Italian plum tomatoes, with juice
2 tablespoons caperberries (available in gourmet shops)
20 Kalamata olives
8 green olives, sliced
1 cup clam juice or fish broth
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 pounds scrod or baccala
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
6 basil leaves, cut into thin strips
In a sauté pan over medium heat, cook the onions and garlic in the olive oil. Add the diced tomatoes and let cook for 2 minutes. Add the wine and let it reduce for 2 minutes. Add the plum tomatoes, caperberries, olives, fish broth, salt and pepper. Simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes.
Place the fish in a roasting pan. Top the fish with the Acqua Pazza sauce. Sprinkle with oregano and basil. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes. Serve hot and with grilled Italian bread, if desired.
FRUTTI DI MARE
Marinated Seafood Salad
(4 servings)
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 pound squid, cleaned and sliced
1 pound bay scallops
12 New Zealand mussels, cooked, with beards removed
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tablespoon Italian parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the shrimp and cook just until bright pink and cooked through, about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the shrimp to a colander to drain. Add the squid to the boiling water and cook until opaque, about 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the squid to the colander to drain. Add the scallops to the boiling water and cook for about 3 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the scallops to the colander to drain.
In a large bowl, combine the shrimp, squid, scallops and the cooked mussels. Add the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Toss all the ingredients until well mixed. Serve over a bed of lettuce with lemon wedges and grilled Italian bread, if desired.
ZUPPA DI PESCE
Fish Soup
(4 servings)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups diced onions
1 cup diced celery
1 cup finely chopped parsley
1 cup finely chopped thyme
1 cup finely chopped oregano
2 cups chopped clams
4 ounces crab meat
4 ounces shrimp, peeled, deveined and diced
4 ounces lobster meat, diced
4 ounces scallops, chopped
4 ounces fresh fish (such as cod or haddock), diced
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup dry white wine
46 ounces clam juice (or seafood stock if available)
32 ounces peeled Italian tomatoes, with juice
2 cups peeled and diced potatoes
In a medium-size stockpot, combine the oil, onions and celery. Sauté until the vegetables become translucent. Add the parsley, thyme, oregano and all the seafood. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Deglaze the bottom of the pot with the white wine.
Add the clam juice and tomatoes. Bring to a simmer. Taste for salt and pepper, adjusting if necessary. Allow soup to reduce down to its original amount, then add the potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are tender.
Once again, taste for salt and pepper, adjusting if necessary.
