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