Holiday menus

Since I grew up in an Italian family with big holiday meals, there was always a pasta course which was usually my favorite part (though part of that is because, like many in her generation, my mother couldn't cook a moist turkey to save her life). But with Siobhan and I, even if we have friends over, it's still hard to justify that many courses. So our tradition has been that we spread out the holiday meal over various holidays. Thanksgiving is the traditional turkey and stuffing; Christmas is something fancy we've never had yet (and sometimes involves taking a risk on a recipe we might not end up liking); and on Christmas Eve and New Year's Day, I make something Italian.

This year I kind of spaced off on my part, partially because Christmas Eve's a workday this year; so all I planned was to make store-bought, but good-quality, raviolis (Celantano) on New Year's Eve, along with a nice loaf of Italian bread. Then I forgot to put them on the shopping list. Then Siobhan forgot to think about what to have for dinner for Christmas Eve. So we're amending the plan with an extra store stop tonight. Which means for New Years Day I don't get off as easy as originally planned; going to make a lasagna for that.

Christmas Day's meal, by the way, is a potato gnocchi and wild boar ragu which was the only thing I turned up in a search of elaborate Italian recipes I'd never tried which sounded like something I might like. With not liking seafood, my tastes are really more about Italian-American food than actual Italian food. (But the idea of trying for Italian meals for Christmas is also part of why I was dropping the Italian-American dish on Christmas Eve.) The wild boar should be arriving tonight by Fedex.

There will also be eggnog, an antipasto, roasted walnuts, and a cassatta cake, which is an Italian cheesecake made with ricotta cheese and ladyfingers for the crust, a recipe I got from my Nana.