This holiday season, bring new flavours to your table with an Italian Christmas feast. From rich fish and seafood dishes to comforting stuffed pastas, roasts and panettone, these Italian Christmas dinner ideas offer a delicious alternative, or a perfect complement, to your traditional British spread.
In Italy, the Christmas holidays start on the 24 December, Christmas Eve. That’s when the celebrations and food gatherings officially begin, with Natale (Christmas Day) as the main event, and Santo Stefano (26 December, Boxing Day) as the closing act.
Across Italy every region has its own traditional festive foods and even within a single region recipes often change from town to town. Still, some dishes are similar and many traditions are shared.
Here’s a look at Italy’s festive tables, from Christmas Eve’s meatless meals to the long, abundant lunches on Christmas Day and the relaxed, leftover feasts on Santo Stefano. These are some of the traditions kept alive in Italy and by Italian families across the US who continue to celebrate customs brought over by earlier generations of immigrants.
Christmas is celebrated in many ways around the world. We’ve got plenty of menu inspiration from classic British Christmas dinners to plenty of alternative dishes. You might want to lay on a buffet from all around the world, incorporating some Polish Christmas dishes as well as being inspired by these Italian Christmas dinner ideas, as well as our collection of Italian-inspired recipes.
Christmas Eve – La Vigilia and The Feast of the Seven Fishes (24 December)
On Christmas Eve, Catholics celebrate the birth of Jesus by staying up until midnight and attending Mass. Many families mark the occasion with festive gatherings, whether or not they’re religious. Traditionally, Italians abstain from meat on this day, opting instead for fish, vegetables and legumes. Popular dishes include spaghetti alle vongole (spaghetti with clams), assorted fried fish, seafood salads, vegetable stews or comforting bean soups. In some areas pizza also makes an appearance. Many enjoy these foods for lunch, as at night they go to Mass and keep their dinner short and light.
Perhaps because Christmas Eve meals were supposed to be meat-free, Italian immigrants in the US began celebrating with several fish courses, giving rise to the famous Italian-American tradition known as the Feast of the Seven Fishes. It seems this tradition was brought to the US by Sicilian immigrants in the 1900s – Sicily’s strong fish and seafood culture may have influenced it. The number seven is said to have been chosen for its symbolic meaning in the Bible. There is no set list of fish, the selection varies by location and family.
Starters might feature fried calamari, stuffed clams, toasted bread topped with cream cheese and smoked salmon, and prawn cocktail. This could be followed by a pasta or soup course such as spaghetti with clams, ravioli or another pasta filled with lobster or crab, and clam chowder. Finally, the main course often includes baked fish like baccalà (salt cod) or salmon, grilled lobster tails and a fresh seafood salad.
Try our Italian Christmas Eve inspired recipes
Starters:
Crispy fried calamari & aïoli
Cauliflower fritters with herby dipping sauce
Pasta & soup course:
Spaghetti alle vongole
Clam chowder
Quick seafood linguine
Crab ravioli
Main:
Grilled lobster tails with lemon & herb butter
Salt cod with root vegetables, cream & bacon
Roasted fish Italian style
Baked salmon with fennel & tomatoes
Christmas Day – Il Giorno Di Natale (25 December)
Christmas Day is when families gather for an abundant, multi-course meal that often stretches across the afternoon and even into dinner. While children sleep in or play, mothers, grandmothers and other family members are busy preparing lunch all morning. The meal typically includes an antipasto (starter) of cured meat and cheese, primo (first course) with pasta, rice or soup, secondo (second course) featuring meat, fish and sides, and dolce (dessert) such as pandoro, panettone, cookies and more. And, of course, the meal usually ends with fresh fruit and nuts.
Antipasto
A typical starter is a charcuterie board featuring a mixture of cured meats and cheeses. Several large trays are laid out across the table, accompanied by bowls filled with olives and salted nuts. Naturally, a drink accompanies the spread: a prosecco or spritz for those who enjoy alcohol, and Sanbittèr, Crodino or Cedrata for an aperitivo analcolico.
The food selection varies by region. Platters may include salumi such as salsiccia, capocollo, soppressata, prosciutto crudo, coppa and mortadella, or formaggi like pecorino, caciocavallo, mozzarella and burrata.
Other traditional antipasti include: cardi in pastella, battered and fried cardoons; crostini con fonduta e tartufo, toasted bread with melted cheese and truffle; pettole and panzerotti fritti, deep-fried pizza dough and mini calzones; olive all’ascolana, olives that are breaded, stuffed and fried.
Try some of our Italian antipasto recipes:
Grazing platter
Antipasti platter with homemade flatbreads
Pear & gorgonzola crostini
Deep-fried olives
Truffled parsnip & parmesan bruschetta
Primo
Stuffed pasta features across Italy. It’s often served in broth – think of the iconic tortellini al brodo – though in some regions it’s dressed with rich meat sauces. Shapes and names vary by region: agnolotti in Piedmont, shaped like small semi-circular pockets; ravioli in Liguria, with a classic square shape; casoncelli in Lombardy, shaped like half moons; anolini and tortellini in Emilia-Romagna (the first round, the second folded around the filling); cappelletti in Umbria, Marche and Lazio, which resemble tortellini; and culurgiones in Sardinia, half-moon shaped and sealed in a way that resembles an ear of wheat. These pastas come with a wide variety of fillings — most are made with meat, cheese and herbs, while some consist of just fresh cheese and vegetables.
Brodo (broth) is a staple on the Italian Christmas table and it’s not just served with pasta. In northern Puglia, zuppetta is a must – a baked dish made of layers of toasted bread, turkey, caciocavallo cheese and mozzarella, covered with broth. Campania’s minestra maritata combines escarole, chicory and other bitter greens in a meat broth. Basilicata offers another variation – a soup made with escarole, savoy cabbage and cardoons in turkey broth. Zuppa alla Valpellinese from Valle d’Aosta features stale bread and cabbage cooked in beef stock. Abruzzo’s version is a soup made with chickpeas, chestnuts and vegetable broth.
While stuffed pasta and soup are among the most common Christmas first courses, other regional specialties include lasagne, risotto, a variety of handmade pastas with meat or fish sauces, and even bread dumplings (canederli).
Try some of our Italian first course dishes:
Italian vegetable soup
Green minestrone with tortellini
Acquacotta
Hearty pasta soup
Porcini, pancetta & spelt soup
Italian borlotti bean, pumpkin & farro soup
Check out more of our Italian starter recipes.
Secondo e contorno
Meat: for the second course, chicken is a common choice – specifically cappone, a large bird prized for its tender and flavourful meat. It’s usually roasted and sometimes stuffed: in Lombardia with minced meat, eggs and cheese; in Campania with stale bread and caciocavallo cheese. Roasted lamb and baked sausages are common as well, often cooked with potatoes, sage and rosemary. Beef stew and bollito (boiled meats) are popular choices too.
Fish: this also features as a second course. Baccalà can be enjoyed fried, stewed (in umido), or boiled. Fish soup is another favourite – a well-known example is brodetto alla Termolese from Molise, made by cooking fresh fish and seafood in a tomato and pepper sauce. Eel is a traditional choice as well: fried, stewed, grilled or baked, it’s often eaten on New Year’s Eve but it’s also served on Christmas Day.
Sides: traditional regional contorni include peperoni in bagna cauda, baked peppers stuffed with anchovies; cardoon flan; insalata di rinforzo, a cauliflower salad enriched with olives and pickled vegetables; pan-fried broccoli; winter caponata made with celery and almonds; orange, herring and onion salad; and vegetable tempura.
Try some of our Italian second course dishes:
Creamy Tuscan chicken
Italian stuffed chicken
Roast red wine lamb with Italian beans
Seared steak with celery & pepper caponata
Fish:
Roasted fish Italian style
Sea bream in crazy water (Orata all’acqua pazza)
Sides:
Winter vegetable caponata
Roasted peppers with tomatoes & anchovies
Baked cauliflower pizzaiola
Dolce
Desserts are the highlight of the season. Panettone and pandoro are the best known but regional sweets vary widely.
Some traditional sweet breads include: panpepato, found in many regions across Italy; pandolce in Liguria; gubana in Friuli-Venezia Giulia; bisciola in Lombardy; panone di Natale in Emilia-Romagna, fristingo in Marche. These dense yet moist Christmas cakes are made with candied fruit, nuts, aromatics such as lemon, orange zest, cinnamon and clove, and often liquor.
Trays full of cookies and other bite-size desserts are a must. In Valle d’Aosta, tegole, paper-thin wafers made with almond and hazelnut flour; in Tuscany, ricciarelli, chewy almond cookies; in Abruzzo, ferratelle, thin wafers; in Molise, ostie di Agnone ripiene, white wafers filled with caramelised walnuts and almonds; in Campania, roccocò, spiced almond cookies, and struffoli, tiny fried dough balls coated in honey; in Calabria, petrali, cookies filled with figs and nuts; in Sicily, buccellati, spiced cookies filled with figs, and, of course, cannoli; in Basilicata and Puglia, calzoncelli, fried pastries filled with chocolate, chestnuts or chickpeas.
Last but not least is torrone, a nougat made with honey, sugar and nuts found across the country in both soft and crunchy versions.
Try some of our Italian desserts and sweets:
Panettone
Pandoro
Panforte
Ricciarelli biscuits
Fruity biscotti
Easy biscotti
Italian cookies & ice cream
For more inspiration, check out our collection of Italian desserts.
Boxing Day – Santo Stefano (26 December)
The day of Santo Stefano was established as a national holiday in 1947 to provide a day of rest after Christmas Day. It is traditionally more relaxed – people visit relatives and Christmas markets, or play cards and tombola. There are no fixed rules about what to eat: families gather for a leisurely lunch and often enjoy Christmas leftovers or prepare something simple and comforting.
