21 Seafood Recipes for a Feast of the Seven Fishes (2024)

To celebrate the Italian-American tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve, you have tons of seafood dishes to choose from. These recipes have you covered, from traditional dishes like Frutti di Mare to fun and fancy fish dips. Fry up a batch of extra-crunchy calamari to serve with your favorite sauce and a few lemon wedges. Or try your hand at tomato-braised baccalà, a cod dish served at Italian celebrations. Curate your menu for a wonderful feast featuring shellfish, squid, swordfish, sea bass, and more in the form of starters, salad, stew, spaghetti, and centerpieces.

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Fancy Clam Dip

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This classic white clam dip — filled with cream cheese, crème fraîche, and, of course, canned clams — is salty, cheesy, and craveable. Some generous splashes of hot sauce and plenty of fresh dill add brightness and cut through the rich dip.

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Neoclassic Seafood Salad

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Alfred Portale's Frutti di Mare is inspired by the ingredients behind the seafood salads in deli cases in Little Italy. The dish has evolved since becoming an icon of New York's Gotham Bar & Grill in the late 1980s, and the plating is worthy of a special occasion.

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Extra-Crunchy Calamari

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Want to know the secret to exquisitely tender yet crunchy calamari? Start with a soak in buttermilk. For added crunch, you can't beat cornmeal; its fine, pebbly grains fry up crispy. Serve with your favorite marinara.

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Insalata di Pesce

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This recipe was inspired by "a seafood salad that was light, refreshing, and showcased what just a few simple ingredients can do."

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Cioppino (Seafood Stew)

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Bobby Flay's version of the famous Italian-American seafood stew from Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco uses generous portions of fresh shrimp, littleneck clams, and snapper.

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Lobster Risotto

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A small pinch of saffron goes a long way in imparting a vibrant golden hue and floral fragrance to this creamy, indulgent lobster risotto. Precooked lobster and bottled clam juice deliver robust layers of flavor with a minimum amount of effort. San Francisco sommelier Tonya Pitts recommends pairing the dish with a bottle of white Bordeaux.

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Spaghetti with Mussels, Squid Ink, and Breadcrumbs

21 Seafood Recipes for a Feast of the Seven Fishes (7)

Commonly sold as squid ink, cuttlefish ink lends its signature deep black hue to this dish from Christian Puglisi and coats every strand of spaghetti with its briny, mineral-rich taste. A simple mussel puree provides a mild, delicate seafood flavor and creamy richness.

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Tomato-Braised Baccalà with Olives and Polenta

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Simmering soaked salt cod in a tomato sauce filled with peppers, onions, and olives infuses the fish with flavor and leaves it flaky and tender. Sweet and creamy polenta — enriched with lightly tangy mascarpone — sops up the sauce and balances the brightly flavored fish.

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Venetian Shrimp with Polenta

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Inspired by Schie con Polenta in Venice, Italy, David McCann tops simple polenta with garlicky, buttery shrimp that's cooked in white wine and chicken stock.

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Smoked Salmon Dip

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This creamy dip features flaky smoked salmon two ways: Half is finely chopped to add a pleasant texture to the dip alongside briny pops of capers, and the rest is pureed with the mayonnaise, sour cream, and cream cheese, lending its beautiful color and deepening the flavor.

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Fregula cun Cocciula (Sardinian Fregola with Clams)

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This dish, from March restaurant in Houston, spotlights perfectly steamed clams and chewy fregola, a small round pasta from Sardinia, in a golden, spicy, briny broth.

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Cioppino with Fennel and Saffron

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An abundance of seafood and three types of fennel (bulb, seed, and pollen) infuse chef Brandon Boudet's version of this San Francisco fish stew with remarkable flavor, while Calabrian chile paste and crushed red pepper add a subtle layer of heat.

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Monkfish Piccata

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Monkfish, with its tender, springy bite reminiscent of lobster, is firm and sweet enough to stand up to this lemony butter sauce enriched with white miso. Plenty of briny capers and caperberries help cut through the richness.

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Spaghetti with Mussels, Clams, and Shrimp

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Pack simple pasta with succulent shrimp and briny mussels and clams for a seafood lover's spaghetti.

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Italian Seafood Stew

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In this luscious, tomato-rich stew, chef Marco Canora cooks calamari slowly until it becomes super tender. He says calamari is absolutely essential to the success of the dish, because it releases its liquid as it simmers, which adds a huge amount of flavor to the sauce.

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Black and White Pici Pasta with Squid and Shellfish

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2014 F&W Best New Chef Eli Kulp prepares this dramatic seafood pasta dish with freshly made, toothsome black and white noodles, which he tosses with a big, briny seafood sauce and finishes with spicy pickled cherry peppers.

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Sea Bass with Sicilian Cherry Tomato Sauce

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Extra Virgin hosts Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos riff on classic Southern Italian puttanesca with their Sicilian Cherry Tomato Sauce, here made with fresh tomatoes. The recipe calls for wild sea bass, but Mazar and Corcos like to make it with almost any fish, especially rich and oily ones like mackerel or bluefish.

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Roasted Sardines with Olives, Capers, and Parsley

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Here, sardines are first pan-fried with a mix of olives, capers, lemon zest, parsley, and chiles, then roasted in the oven for a few more minutes until they're cooked through. To make this more of a main course, chef Chris Cosentino pairs them with a crunchy salad of artichokes and sunchokes.

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Salted Anchovies, Salsa Verde, Bread, Butter

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Chef Missy Robbins found inspiration for this dish in Italy. The best part? It's ready in just over half an hour, so it makes for an easy appetizer.

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Baked Clams with Bacon and Garlic

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In this ultimate version of baked clams, chef Daniel Humm includes chopped clams in the filling, doubling down on the briny flavor of our favorite bivalve. Bacon, parsley, lemon, and a touch of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese add a savory, herby kick.

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Swordfish Sicilian-Style

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Of all the wonderful recipes legendary cookbook author Marcella Hazan created, our all-time favorite is this quick-cooking swordfish, where an oregano-infused sauce imparts bright flavor to hot-off-the-grill steaks. The secret is pricking holes in the fish so the lemony dressing seeps in.

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