In Italy, Christmas Eve dinner is traditionally lighter with no meat and a lot of seafood, while the Italian-American meal has evolved into much more of a feast. Bring on the sword fish, tuna, salmon, octopus salad, smelts, calamari, spaghetti with clam sauce and the famous Italian classic—salted cod, known as baccalà. The Feast of the Seven Fishes can also include other meatless dishes, which vary by region. For example, gnocchi recipes and stuffed pasta are a hit in Northern Italy, where Veneto is known for buckwheat spaghetti in a creamy anchovy sauce. No matter where you celebrate, though, the sweet treats are a certainty: biscotti, pandoro, torrone (nougat candy) and almost always a candied loaf of panettone.
