Christmas Eve
Christmas Cookies
A huge pre-holiday care package of Christmas Cookies from my mom!
Pre-Dinner Cocktails
Left - Walter Gibson
Right - Manhattan
Fritto Misto
Fried Calamari, Shrimp, and Scallops
Marinara Sauce & Anchovy-Caper Mayo
Fish on Christmas Eve is a big deal for my family, which spent many years doing the traditional southern Italian Feast of the Seven Fishes. Leah and I of course didn't prepare all seven, but we managed to get four in (though the anchovies are more of a technical inclusion). I loved the next course but would have also been perfectly happy eating fried fish all night.
Poached Salmon
Hollandaise
Fried Skin
Herb-Buttered Potatoes
Peas
For the main course we observed Leah's family's tradition of eating poached salmon with Hollandaise sauce. Since we already had the deep fryer out from preparing the fried fish appetizer, we blasted the salmon skin and made some delicious chips to go along with the meal.
Bûche de Noël
Tequila-Soaked Sponge
Coffee Buttercream Filling
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Another pickup from Leah's family, and one of my all-time favorite desserts. Though we used Leah's mom's recipe, we customized the flavors to our liking, which was fun to brainstorm. We ultimately settled on tequila, coffee, and chocolate, which was a delicious combination. Leah expertly rolled the cake without any tearing, showing those chumps on the Great British Baking Show how it's done. We enjoyed eating this dessert for about a week after the holiday - our slices became progressively larger as we made our way through the log.
Christmas Day
Fried Fish "Kaftero"
For lunch on Christmas Day we heated up the remaining fried fish in a dry non-stick skillet, which did a decent job at re-crisping it all. I remembered serving (and eating) a delicious dish at the Tenafly Diner, where I worked years ago, called Calamari Kaftero - they would drop calamari straight from the fryer into a hot pan along with chilies and lemon. We tried a similar version here, adding pickled jalapeños, chili flakes, and capers. It was a fantastic way to eat the leftovers.
Lasagna
Homemade Pasta
Bolognese, Béchamel, & Marinara Sauces
Pecorino Romano
Lasagna is my family's Christmas Day dish, and one of my favorite things in the world - it would probably be my deathbed meal. Our lasagna is Neapolitan, meaning it has a lot of "fancy" stuff in it - tiny meatballs, two types of sausage, bits of salami, finely diced hardboiled egg, multiple cheeses, and "gravy" (marinara sauce flavored with meat). It's pretty over-the-top and eats like a brick, in the best way possible.
On my own though, I like to make a different type of lasagna from northern Italy using thin sheets of homemade pasta layered with small amounts of Bolognese and béchamel sauces and a bit of grated cheese (here I also added marinara sauce, which is untraditional).
I had originally planned on baking this using the free-standing method developed by Mark Ladner for his famous 100-layer lasagne at Del Posto. However I screwed up the pasta dough somehow (I think I over-kneaded) and it became too tough to properly roll out, leaving me with only about a quarter batch of usable pasta for all my work. It wasn't a total loss though, as there was enough to bake one small lasagna which was plenty to share for one meal.
As they serve it at Del Posto, we lightly baked the lasagna in advance, then refrigerated it until ready to eat. At meal time, we cut thick slices and seared them in butter on one side in a hot pan, creating a delicious crispy crust that contrasts with the almost creamy inner pasta layers. Served over warm marinara sauce and topped with a bit more grated cheese, it was heavenly. Though it if were my last meal, I'd still probably want my mom's lasagna.
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