We will go to Mass this evening as we do every year and then come home to an incredible traditional feast that I have been enjoying since I was a child. A typical Italian Christmas Eve ‘meatless’ dinner with buccala (cod fish cakes), aleche’ (Spaghetti with Anchovies), Luna Pizza (no red sauce) with fresh mozzarella & Fontina cheeses.
Of course, this has been scaled down from years past, when we also had smelt, snails and Octopus. In fact, I remember one year when I was little, at my Grandpa’s house, live snails that had gotten loose and were crawling up the cellar wall, which my Grandpa had to gather up for preparation of Christmas Eve dinner in a hurry. Grandpa & Grandma were both from Italy. He was from Naples and my Grandma was from a little town outside of Naples called Availlino. They brought this Italian tradition with them to America.
I always have such fond memories of growing up in an Italian environment, neither could speak a word of English, which was okay then because while we lived with them we spoke both Italian and English. The shame of it is, when my Mom and Dad both their own home and we moved out, I forgot almost all of my Italian. The saying “if you don’t use it, you loose it”, is so true.
