In my home in Calabria, we celebrate Christmas each year with a traditional dinner of fish: Twelve courses of fish, served with bread. Each of the fish plates represents one of the Apostles, and the bread of course represents Jesus Christ, who was the fisher of men.
This last Christmas, we were fortunate to be surrounded by my mother, who is almost 90 years old, my younger brother, and many other friends who traveled from Europe and various places in the U.S. to visit. Giancarlo Gottardo, a very good friend who is also a world-famous chef, was one of our guests.
Together with Giancarlo, our friends Shreya Kanodia, Giorgio Valentini, Aylin Gottardo, and Andrea Valentini, and of course my wife Betti, we prepared a fabulous and elegant feast for the 29 friends who came to our dinner.
My goal is to publish all of the recipes from our Christmas dinner — one or two recipes a week for the next few weeks.
Here are links to our 2019 Christmas Eve dinner: