Christmas Eve dinner

orange salad

selection of typical Sicilian appetizers

Fourteen people at dinner for Cristmas Eve and two days for preparing all the courses.

Big families' reunions are a tradition for Christmas Eve as well as a table laid carefully and prepared for the feast with rich food.

The menu included:

a rich selelction of Sicilian appetizers:
eggplants fillets in oil

artichokes in oil

green and black olives

green olives filled with breadcrumbs and pecorino chesse

round chilly peppers filled with tuna fish

red chilly peppers filled with anchovies

cloves of sweet garlic in oil

cherry tomatoes in oil

a selection of Sicilian cheese and salami:

smoked provola cheese

(a type of cheese made from buffalo's milk from Ragusa area)

tuma cheese

strong provolone cheese

home-made salami from Sant'Angelo di Brolo

zuzzo (sort of pork in aspic)

ham and cheese mousse

two types of mignon crepes:

one filled with ricotta cheese and spinach flavoured with butter and

the other filled with bechamel and mushrooms

two types of typical Catanese scacciata

(a sort of covered pizza with fillings):

one type filled with tuma cheese and anchovies and

the other filled with wild vegetables and sausages

(these two prepared by my sister in law)

cauliflower croquettes

flavoured with bacon and cheese

dried cod croquettes

orange salad

with fennel and green onion

home made chocolate birthday cake

(it was my bother's birthday)

panettone and pandoro

During dinner, wine was red from Regaleali winery.

After dinner, together with dried fruit and nuts to munch (these are typical at Christmastime) Sicilian liqueurs and digestives made of fennel, tangerine, lemon and Moscato wine.

There was enough to feed an army!

P.S. I will post some of these recipes during the next days

Pictures: © Doriana Briguglio