Rouses_FINAL-November-December-2017

OUR ITALIAN HERITAGE

La Vigilia by Liz Williams Excerpted from My Rouses Everyday , November | December 2015 M y Sicilian-born grandmother made the Feast of the Seven Fishes on La Vigilia (Christmas Eve) every year. She used fresh fish, shrimp, crabs — anything that came from the Gulf of Mexico — including American eel, which we caught in the waters of Chef Menteur Pass. American eels looks like snakes, but taste like fish. She bartered for the rest of themeal. My great- grandfather had been and my great-uncles were butchers at the French Market, and they would trade offal from the pigs and cows they butchered for the bycatch of the fishermen at the next stall. That’s howmy grandmother got the squid, water snails and spiny lobsters she served, none of which were sold in the typical seafood market or at the French Market. When it came to the actual seven fishes, my grandmother was very broad in what she considered fish. Frogs, turtles, even crawfish weren’t officially classified as seafood back then. (Alligators didn’t make the official cut until 2010, when New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond decreed that, “yes, alli- gator is considered to be in the fish family.”) She was also very broad in what she counted as “a” fish dish. An oyster counted as one fish, two oysters as two fish. Like most Sicilians, she changed the menu every year. And she didn’t always stop with seven fish (seven is for the sacraments, according to my grandmother). Some holidays she did 10 to mark the decades of the rosary; other years she cooked 12 for the apostles. One year she served 15 because that’s how much seafood she had on hand. While I have yet to make my own Feast of the Seven Fishes for my husband, sons, daughter- in-law and granddaughter, Olivia (the most adventurous eater in the family), families from Sicily, Italy to Little Italy (down here, that’s Independence, Louisiana), serve the Feast of the Seven Fishes every Christmas Eve. Don’t be intimidated by the number seven: If you use my grandmother’s formula whereby one shrimp equals two fish, you can knock out the seven with one pot of gumbo!

by méthode champenoise , which requires a secondary fermentation in the bottle that results in champagne quality for a fraction of the price. Another option is the Riondo Prosecco, which carries a hint of green apple and a crisp finish.This bubbly wine would also pair nicely with creamier menu items, or a lightly fried seafood dish like frito misto . Lighter dishes with flavors of fennel and garlic pair beautifully with crisp whites, including pinot grigio and orvieto, the star of the white wines hailing from the Umbria region of Italy. A dish of linguine with clams, white wine and garlic or a plate of crabmeat drizzled with brown butter and capers would both pair beautifully with the Zaccagnini Pinot Grigio or the RuffinoOrvietoClassico, which carries notes of green apples and has a slight mineral finish. An easy-drinking wine like the Ca de Medici Lambrusco, a fruity and fizzy wine from the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy, also pairs well with heavier seafood dishes. Rosés are another nice middle ground, and Havener suggests pairing them with dishes featuring a little spice. He recommends the 12 e Mezzo Rosato del Salento — a wine he first sampled at Vinitaly — which features light lime notes with hints of peach and a slightly effervescent finish. In Italy, there is a common saying: “What grows together, goes together.” It’s an adage that chefs and wine lovers alike adhere to; it re-

fers to a region’s terroir , a term used to describe the set of environmental factors and habitat, from altitude, soil type and climate, that influ- ence and shape the characteristics of a wine. Dishes with Sicilian roots pair perfectly with Sicilian wines, and the Mediterranean island features varied terrains with topical diversity that drive the production of a variety of different wines and an industry over 3,000 years in the making. A dish of shrimp served with eggplant caponata — Sicily’s most beloved dish — would be a lovely match with the Stemmari Nero D’Avola, a wine carrying the name of the grape most widely planted on the island. When you move into the heavier, tomato- based dishes, try migrating to bolder, rustic wines like the 12 e Mezzo Primitivo del Salento or the Demarie Langhe Nebbiolo, a wine from the Piedmont region that carries notes of spice, blackberries and plums. Though the general rule of whites with seafood and fish prevails, some of the heavier courses — and some of the meatier fishes — lend themselves wonderfully to lighter reds, Havener says. “Salmon, sardines, octopus — some of those can go great with lighter red wines,” he says. With fishes like tuna, also known as the red meat of the sea, you can go even bolder. Whatever wines find their way to your holiday table, just make sure they keep flowing. After all, no real Italian meal is complete without plenty of wine.

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