The house is filled with amazing smells, wine is flowing, and the talking sounds more like screaming. The men are at one end of the table arguing about their favorite sports and the ladies seem to flock to the kitchen or wine table discussing the newest TV shows or hair trends. Once the wine starts to set in, we collectively gather and reminisce about the good old days. If we do not exhaust each other by the end of the night, we exchange gifts and then play some sort of silly game. In between all of the excitement, the food is constantly flowing. Welcome to my favorite night of the year, Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve in the Diodato house is more like an Olympic event. Our family races around in order to make this holiday special for all of our guests. We send out invitations to 65+ people, plan an enormous menu, bake cookies at the last minute, clean the house for the umpteenth time, shop for all the food, and finally come together to cook!

The Feast of Seven Fishes, is how I’ve grown up celebrating Christmas Eve.  Our evening usually consists of 4 courses and every course includes some sort of seafood or fish. You can always find, crab, eel, calamari, smelts, baccala, and shrimp on our menu, but for our seventh fish, we like to switch it up.  Often times we make a Puttanesca, anchovies with olives and capers in a rich tomato sauce, or we will cook clam or mussels with linguini (if we are lucky, mom will make both!) Pasta is always part of our Christmas Eve dinner, and is typically the main dish. Whether we are serving squid ink pasta, puttanesca with penne, or a seafood linguini; pasta is always at the table.

The Diodato Home is an open house, so feel free to swing by; we will welcome you with open arms, a glass of wine, and big bowl of pasta!