My cousin Evelina surprised me today when I asked her about the famed “Feast of the Seven Fishes,” an Italian-American tradition I thought also was practiced in Sicily on Christmas Eve. She didn’t know what I was talking about (Neither did my friend Vittorio from Caserta, outside of Napoli, when I asked him if he celebrated Christmas with La Festa dei Sette Pesci). Evelina explained that for “La Vigilia,” or Christmas Eve, their tradition is to have a dinner of sfincione (pictured here), fried cardoon (the thistle of the artichoke plant, fried in a light batter), and perhaps some pasta, but not a large, rich meal. They reserve that for Christmas day.
