Did you eat a special or traditional meal on Christmas Eve when growing up?

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

In our Italian household we had dry salt cod with angel hair, garlic, anchovies, olive oil and Pecorino Romano cheese. Grandma would make it. She would take the bus to downtown L.A. and buy some salt cod and big gallon cans of olive oil a week earlier. She was a direct immigrant from Sicily, Province of Catania. She could not read, write or drive but worked in the fabric mills back east and owned a home. When she moved to L.A. I think her house was about $18,000.

I wish she was still alive so I could ask her about this meal and how it came to be a family tradition. Maybe she was fed it back in Sicily in the late 1800s. When you are growing up as a kid you never think of finding such things out.

She also made these pastries at Christmas.

 

Screenshot 12-09-2025 10.54.451866×791 235 KB

 

Did you eat a special or traditional meal on Christmas Eve when growing up?

[Max Field]

Pizza Rolls

[Steve Switaj]

>> Grandma would make it. 

My grandmother was also Italian, but I think we were the only Italian family in town where our nona didn't make her own pasta - or even like the stuff. 

Turns out that she grew up in the extreme south of Italy and that is a terrible place to grow wheat. The soil is just too sandy and rocky. In the very early 20th century the area was also abysmally poor. This meant that wheat was a luxury food that they seldom had and she just didn't grow up with it. Their staple carbohydrate was beans instead of pasta.

On the other hand - it is truly amazing what an Italian grandmother could do with the right beans.

Edited December 26, 2025 by Steve Switaj