Feast of the Seven Fishes: 16 Seafood Recipes for Christmas Eve

Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos riff on classic Southern Italian puttanesca with their Sicilian Cherry Tomato Sauce, here made with fresh tomatoes. The recipe calls for wild sea bass, but Mazar and Corcos like to make it with almost any fish, especially rich and oily ones like mackerel or bluefish.

A citrusy, sharp dry white wine would offer an ideal contrast to the briny mussels and clams in this pasta dish. Look for an Italian Pinot Grigio.

This dramatic seafood pasta from 2014 Food & Wine Best New Chef Eli Kulp features fresh, toothsome black-and-white noodles, which are tossed with a big, briny seafood sauce and finished with spicy pickled cherry peppers.

In this luscious, tomato-rich stew, chef Marco Canora cooks calamari slowly until it becomes super-tender. He says calamari is absolutely essential to the success of the dish, because it releases its liquid as it simmers, which adds a huge amount of flavor to the sauce. Serve the finished stew with garlic-rubbed toasts.

Here, sardines are first pan-fried with a mix of olives, capers, lemon zest, parsley, and chiles, and then roasted in the oven for a few more minutes until they're cooked through. To make this more of a main course, chef Chris Cosentino pairs them with a crunchy salad of artichokes and sunchokes.

Chef Carlo Mirarchi often makes this dish with sepia (cuttlefish) and hyssop, an herb with a minty licorice flavor. This version, which calls for easier-to-find squid and fresh mint, is also delicious.

This fried Napolitano snack is flavored with anchovies, which bring a nice saltiness to the fritters. Enjoy them right after they've drained on paper towels so they're still hot.

This lovely seafood salad was an improvisation. "I made it with what I had in the house," Piero Incisa della Rocchetta recalls. He uses grapefruit juice both to glaze the crab and to make the sweet-tangy salad dressing.

In 2018, Food & Wine named this recipe one of our 40 best: The late, legendary cookbook author Marcella Hazan joined F&W as a contributing editor in 1992. Former executive food editor Tina Ujlaki remembers that although technique mattered to Hazan, "taste trumped all." Of all the wonderful recipes she created, our all-time favorite is this quick-cooking swordfish, where an oregano-infused sauce imparts bright flavor to hot-off-the-grill steaks. The secret is pricking holes in the fish so the lemony dressing seeps in.

This classic white clam dip, filled with cream cheese; crème fraîche; and, of course, canned clams, is salty, cheesy, and craveable. Some generous splashes of hot sauce and plenty of fresh dill add brightness and cut through the rich dip.

Want to know the secret to exquisitely tender yet crunchy calamari? Start with a soak in buttermilk. This slightly acidic liquid gently tenderizes the squid, and since the buttermilk is extra thick, it helps the breading adhere to the rings, eliminating the need for beaten egg. For added crunch, you can't beat cornmeal; its fine, pebbly grains fry up crispy. Serve with your favorite marinara.

A small pinch of saffron goes a long way in imparting a vibrant golden hue and floral fragrance to this creamy lobster risotto. Precooked lobster and bottled clam juice deliver robust layers of flavor with a minimum amount of effort, making this an easy lift even on a weeknight. Pair it with a bottle of white Bordeaux, recommends San Francisco sommelier Tonya Pitts. "I love white Bordeaux with this easy dish. It highlights the lobster and creaminess of the risotto, ultimately becoming intertwined with the flavor and textures."

Chef Missy Robbins found inspiration for this dish in Italy. The best part? It's ready in just over half an hour, so it makes for an easy appetizer.

In this ultimate version of baked clams, chef Daniel Humm includes chopped clams in the filling, doubling down on the briny flavor of our favorite bivalve. Bacon, parsley, lemon and a touch of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese add a savory, herby kick.

An abundance of seafood and three types of fennel (bulb, seed, and pollen) infuse chef Brandon Boudet's version of this San Francisco fish stew with remarkable flavor, while Calabrian chile paste and crushed red pepper add a subtle layer of heat.

Simmering soaked salt cod in a tomato sauce filled with peppers, onions, and olives infuses the fish with flavor and leaves it flaky and tender. Sweet and creamy polenta—enriched with lightly tangy mascarpone—sops up the sauce and balances the brightly flavored fish.