Originally Posted by Bags

An annual tradition at our house is the Christmas Day 7-course Italian dinner for “orphans and Jews and Buddhists and aethiests and Muslims and Hindus and christians and anyone else who wants to come”. This year it is just my husband and I. Maybe one other couple.

We make everything from scratch. Our companions are only required to bring an apetite and if they want to, a nice bottle of wine, or sparkling juice or anything else they want to drink and share.

They are not allowed to help us clean up. A very strict rule!

This has been my husband's tradition for 50 years. I have been part of this tradition for 20 of those years.



This year, a smaller version of previous years:

Small Antipasta Plate with homemade baguette.

Grilled proscuitto-wrapped shrimp

Roasted broccolii and proscuitto with balsamic glaze (husband doesn't like brussel sprouts and we have a lot of proscuitto)

Ricotta Gnocchi with a Browned Butter Sage sauce – with homemade ricotta cheese

Calabrian Sausage and Rapini Ravioli – the sausage is homemade, the rapini is from our garden and the pasta is homemade

Lamb Ragu with Pappardelle – with homemade, hand-cut pasta

Panna Cotta with Blueberries – blueberries are from our garden

Anginetti – Italian Lemon Drop cookies

Dark chocolate truffles

Dessert is served with a small glass of Port, Lemoncello and coffee..




Happy Holidays!