For today’s topic we want to start entering the Christmas spirit: just over a month away from the long-awaited holidays and in this post we want to give you some useful tips on what to cook for Christmas . We will see in fact which Christmas recipes can be used to make a good impression with friends and relatives, in the days of the holidays!
First of all the appetizers
It is customary for Christmas dinners and lunches to always start with appetizers. In fact, during lunch or dinner, diners have always expected to start their meal with something “delicious”.
What are the most popular Christmas appetizers?
Many start with excellent salmon canapes, accompanied by mayonnaise and other sauces. An idea to work on involves the use of Christmas shapes for the realization of these appetizers: trees, shepherds, balls, stars, these are the most used molds for Christmas canapes. There are many ideas for these appetizers, and we refer you to the cookaround.com site for the creation of fantastic recipes.
The canapes can then be followed by other Christmas appetizers, such as olives, or savory croissants with meat and salami, marinated anchovies, fried food, shrimp cocktails, Russian salad and reinforcement, cold cuts. There are really many dishes to prepare. And we are only starters!
First dishes
In the Italian tradition, the pasta-based first course can never be missing. Here too we have many useful and equally delicious ideas. In fact, from North to South of our splendid peninsula, we have many traditional Christmas first courses that can be prepared in this period: from risotto, which can be made with fish or vegetables, to pasta with seafood, typical of Southern Italy , from orecchiette to Apulian turnip tops, up to Bolognese tortellini, agnolotti. In order not to be mistaken, we advise you to perhaps prepare a taste of first courses (even two could be fine) so as not to upset anyone on such important occasions.
Christmas main courses
For Christmas main courses , here too the Italian culinary tradition is rich in recipes and typical dishes, which vary from region to region, and sometimes even from village to village.
As a good Neapolitan I cannot fail to mention, among my typical Christmas recipes: fried capitone, cod in batter, but also baked fish can be an excellent idea to whet the palate with a healthy dish but at the same time not too heavy (after the starters and the first course maybe the appetite is waning).
For meat lovers, maybe you can orient yourself on chicken, or if we want to take a cue from the American tradition, on stuffed turkey, so as not to disappoint meat lovers.
Finally, on New Year’s Eve, the traditional zampone with lentils cannot be missing.
Fruit and dessert
Leaving aside the vegetables for a moment, we want to focus on fruit and Christmas cake .
As for the fruit corner, the Christmas tradition provides for two different types of fruit to be served at the table:
- fresh fruit, and here we can serve excellent Christmas melon, called yellow or winter melon, which can also be served as an appetizer (the traditional ham and melon). Alternatively, pineapple is also very popular;
- dried and dried fruit , represented by the set of fruits and seeds served at the end of lunch / dinner, especially in the Neapolitan tradition;
As Christmas sweets , we are spoiled for choice, and here too there are specialties linked to regions, cities, provincial hamlets, each of which retains a piece of tradition: if we look at Sicily, we have Sicilian cassata, or cannoli; if we move to Naples instead, we cannot miss struffoli, mostaccioli, rococo or baba; in the North, on the other hand, there is a strong connection with the traditional artisan panettone or pandoro .
In general, there are many typical Christmas sweets to be rediscovered and we refer you to the most authoritative food blogs as a source of inspiration.
On the beverage front, everything must obviously be accompanied by excellent house wine, white or red depending on the course, good sparkling wine to toast, and if you have any, an excellent bitter to accompany digestion, which is rather difficult for Italians in these occasions.
