They call it the Feast of the Seven Fishes, but in chef Kevin Fonzo’s experience, that’s generally in name only. “In most Italian families, I think that’s the bare minimum,” he says, laughing. All joking aside, the feast’s earliest origins lie in Catholic tradition.

“Just as Italian Catholics don’t eat meat on Good Friday, they do not eat meat on Christmas Eve, either,” says food historian and public speaker Francine Segan, who often lectures on Italian culinary traditions. “Since at least the fourth century a.d., throughout Italy, a meatless dinner was served to celebrate Christmas Eve with specialty dishes like pasta cooked in almond milk topped with walnut pesto.”