By Francesca Montillo, ISDA Food + Travel Writer

Let’s preface by saying that dishes and traditions, especially at Christmastime, are very different throughout Italy. Starting with when you eat. In the Center and in the South, Italians favor “il cenone della vigilia.” This is a big culinary feast served on the Eve. While in the North, a huge lunch on the actual day is a must. 

Below you will find all the oddities about Italy and how Christmas is celebrated. Each has their own tradition. In all cases, however, gifts must be opened at the stroke of midnight, after the arrival of Santa Claus. 

The Northern table 

One of the Aosta Valley specialties eaten for Christmas is carbonade, beef cooked in red wine, then honey croutons are also very popular, to be seasoned with dried and flavored goat or sheep salami. 

In Piedmont, it is not Christmas without agnolotti and mixed boiled meat, seasoned with sauces. Ravioli and cappon magro, a dish of vegetables and fish, dominate the Ligurian tables. And if in Lombardy, surprisingly, one of the most traditional dishes is eel cooked in foil. In Veneto, polenta is eaten with cod and boiled meat with sauces. 

In Friuli, you will be served a soup of turnips and cotechino, with polenta, and then tripe with sauce and cheese and capon. And in Trentino-Alto Adige, there are plates of dumplings, roe deer or kid in the oven, and to close the strudel or zelten, made with dried fruit and candied fruit. 

Center of Italy 

Tortellini and passatelli, strictly in broth, tagliatelle and lasagna, and ham and culatello will be served in Emilia Romagna. Although there are exceptions, like Modena, where you eat fish, especially preserved. There you can enjoy spaghetti with tuna, mackerel, anchovies and tomato, but also stewed or fried cod. 

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And cod is also the protagonist in the tables of the eve of Lazio, where mixed fried vegetables are also abundant. In Rome, on the Eve, you cannot miss the fish soup, or the pasta and broccoli in broth. There are also spaghetti with anchovies, fried or soaked eel and chicory salad. And finally, nougat to munch on. At Christmas Day, however, lamb is baked in the oven with potatoes and cappelletti in broth. 

In Molise you can eat the thistle soup, the fish-based broth, and the arracanato cod, made with breadcrumbs, garlic, bay leaf, oregano, raisins, pine nuts and walnuts, or the baked one with cabbage, parsley , crumb, raisins and nuts. 

Tuscans enjoy crostini with livers, but also roast guinea fowl or duck and liver or stuffed capon. Pork sausage spiced with fennel, is also cooked. Maccheroncini di Campofilone are traditional in the Marches, but also cappelletti in broth. They are also served in Umbria, where they are sometimes filled with capon and pigeon. Roast lamb and boiled beef, but also lasagna and soups are enjoyed in Abruzzo. Typical of the Teramo area are caggionetti, fried sweet ravioli stuffed with almonds and chestnut purée. 

Southern traditions 

Capon broth, spaghetti with clams, friselle, stuffed capon with reinforcement salad and then struffoli, and dried fruit are served in Campania. For Christmas Eve, many eat capitone, the female eel. Being very similar to a snake, the capitone would symbolize the victory of men over Satan, who took the shape of this animal to tempt Eve. 

Fish, meat and vegetables are not lacking even in Basilicata, Calabria and Puglia. In the first, for the holidays we eat escarole soup, cabbage and thistles in turkey broth, and then boiled cod and bread with almonds. As a dessert, they prepare scarpedde, fried sheets of pasta seasoned with honey. Calabria features cold cuts, from pancetta to capicollo, from soppressata to sausage, and then spaghetti with breadcrumbs and anchovies accompanied with sauteed Calabrian broccoli. 

On the other side of the boot, turnip tops and pettole are made, which are leavened dough. They resemble pancakes stuffed with tomatoes, capers, oregano and anchovies. They also eat roasted eel and fried cod and then baked lamb with lampascioni, which are slightly bitter onions. Finally, the desserts include turdilli or cannaricoli and pitta ‘mpigliata. 

In Sardinia, you can taste the culurgiones de casu, which are ravioli stuffed with tomato sauce, and then the inevitable malloreddus, semolina dumplings with sausage sauce. Salad of oranges, herring and onion, chicken in broth, pasta with sardines and beccafico instead are enjoyed in Sicily. Sfincione is also made, a typical onion-based pizza. Many desserts, from buccellati to cassata and cannoli are enjoyed at the Sicilian tables.