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Hello, foodies…
 
I hope you all had a terrific Thanksgiving. I had a wonderful holiday with dear friends and I’m trying to convince myself I don’t need yet another turkey sandwich right now. (I’m not sure how much longer I can hold out…)
 
Sunday is the first day of December! Since today is Friday, that means there are 27 days until Christmas! But who’s counting? Oh right—I AM! It’s no secret that I love Christmastime and all the magical traditions that go along with it...togetherness with loved ones, caroling, snow, decorations, gifts, and FOOD! Foodies, have you ever been out of the country for Christmas? Where did you go and how did the locals celebrate? Roughly 160 countries around the world celebrate Christmas. While it’s wonderful to revel in the familiarity of our American customs, for the month of December on In the Kitchen with David, we wanted to “take” you around the world to see how our neighbors near and far celebrate.
 
Sunday marks the start of “Christmas Around the World” month and we’re going to Italy! Who better to give us some insight on Italian customs than our (hilarious) friend Fabio Viviani.
 

 
Our girl Mary QVC had the opportunity to speak with Fabio via phone (Fabio’s a busy guy—he now has SEVEN restaurants around the country and is working on his third cookbook) and she laughed from the moment she said hello to the moment they wished each other a very happy “Buon Natale,” or “Merry Christmas!”
 
Here’s how the (crazy!) conversation went:
 
Mary QVC: Fabio, what are some of the most popular Christmas traditions in Italy?
FV: Everyone in Italy is Catholic, so everyone has the Feast of the Seven Fishes—a Christmas Eve feast that features seven seafood courses. It’s a Roman Catholic tradition to abstain from meat on Christmas Eve (in addition to Fridays and pretty much every other holy holiday). It’s such a challenge to give up meat, but since I’m a chef, and I like a challenge, I always give it a try!
 
Mary QVC: Where did you grow up?
FV: Tuscany, Italy—right in the center.
 
Mary QVC: Did you have any special family or regional traditions?
FV: My dad was drunk for Christmas and my house smelled like fish. One year my dad got a cat and the horrible thing ran all over and broke the house.
 
Mary QVC: Um, what? We were hoping for a “nice” tradition, Fabio…
FV: Oh! Well, we all decorate eggs. So you drill a small hole in them, blow out the egg, and dry the shell in the sun. Then we’d paint them—with stupid faces—and give them to each other as gifts. One year, after I start making a little money, I paid one of my employees to draw on each egg a picture of Mom, Dad, Grandfather, etc. and gave them as gifts. It was SO GOOD that we don’t do the tradition anymore. Those eggs couldn’t be topped!
 
Mary QVC: So it sounds like Christmas Eve is just as important as Christmas Day in Italy. Right?
FV: Sí. The whole family gets together, and even though you may not have heard from them all year, everyone loves all over each other. Everyone in my family worked all the time—even on Christmas. But like all Italians, we were also very into religion. The day of Christmas Eve, we’d cook all day and invite the priest over, along with other people from the church. They’d come, we’d feed them, and then my mom convinced the priest to give us mass at home so we didn’t have to go. For 10 years she did this…the priest would come over to eat and my mother would say, “Father, could you bless our house?” I remember my mom was allergic to the incense, so we’d say, “Mom, the church is coming,” and she’d say, “Let me go get my Kleenex.”
 
Even the days after Christmas were important to us…we had no extra money growing up—I mean really none at all, so we picked up the trees in the street on the 28th to have a few days of decorating the tree (if we were lucky we found a tree with the decorations still on it!) and we enjoyed the feeling of Christmas.
 
Mary: Does Santa exist in Italian culture? What are children taught about him?
FV: Oh, YES! He’s a BIG deal in Italy! But it’s totally a kid thing. Since we didn’t have much money growing up, Santa brought socks. Sometimes underwear. Maybe even textbooks. But if you were REALLY GOOD—you got a steak!
 
Mary QVC: Besides seafood, what other foods did your family enjoy at Christmas?
FV: We take a suckling pig, fill it with squash, then meticulously sew it back together. Then we roast it in an Italian version of a Cajun oven for days. It was underground, covered, and made of steel and stone. Once the pig was cooked, people were blistering themselves to eat it. My grandmother would swing a wooden spoon like Robin Hood to defend the pig—it was that good.
 
Mary QVC: Could you share the recipe for that? Or another dish?
FV: Of course! A version of the pork is actually in my cookbook. My grandmother also used to make an “overcooked” lamb shank that never was overcooked, but you couldn’t convince her otherwise. That’s also in the book.
 
Mary QVC: Fabio, thank you. How do you say “Merry Christmas” in Italian?
FV: We say “Buon Natale!” Tell all of David’s foodies Fabio says “Buon Nalate!”
 
There you have it, foodies. Christmas traditions from the one and only Fabio Viviani. (Mary, thank you for translating so well!) Here’s the recipe for that heavenly pork dish he spoke about. This appeared in his second book, Fabio’s Italian Kitchen.

Butternut Squash-Filled Roasted Pork Loin
 
Ingredients:

•    3 butternut squash, cut in half, or any other winter squash
•    6 Tbsp olive oil
•    Salt
•    1 pork loin, 4-5 lb.
•    1 Tbsp salt
•    1 Tbsp pepper
•    1 Tbsp garlic, minced
•    1 Tbsp fresh sage, minced
•    1 Tbsp butter, melted, plus more for brushing on the pork

Directions:

1.    Preheat the oven to 375°F.

2.    Drizzle each squash half with 1 Tbsp of olive oil and dust with a pinch of salt. Place the halves face up on baking sheets and bake for about 45 minutes or until the flesh is tender. Remove from the oven, and when they are cool enough to handle, scoop the flesh into a bowl and let it cool down more.

3.    Using a large, sharp knife, “unroll” the pork loin into a flat sheet. Start by making a cut about ¼” deep down the length of the loin, then slide the knife underneath the meat and turn the loin as you continue cutting, unrolling the meat with one hand as you cut with the other. Try to stay even at about ¼” thickness. If your butcher is a nice guy, he will do this for you. Ask!

4.    Once the pork is completely unrolled into a flat sheet, combine the salt, pepper, garlic, sage, and melted butter. Rub the mixture all over the upper side of the meat.

5.    Spread the squash on top of the seasoning mix, then roll the pork back up and tie it with butcher’s twine.

6.    Place the pork loin in a roasting pan, brush it with butter, and roast it in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the interior temperature is about 170°F.

7.    Cut into thick slices and present the whole loin at the table for serving.
 
Since Fabio had such a great entrée recipe, we thought we’d make a classic Italian dessert this recipe: Pizzelles!
 

 
Pizzelles
Makes 24‒26 cookies
 
This recipe is prepared using the Cuisinart Pizzelle Press (K298107).
 
Go to David's Recipe Item Page for the full list of items that David has used in his recipes.
 
Ingredients:

• 1-3/4 cups flour


• 2 tsp baking powder


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 3 eggs


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 1/4 tsp salt


• 1 Tbsp almond extract


• 1 Tbsp orange zest


• 1 stick butter, melted


• Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

 
Directions:

1. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium-size bowl and set aside.


2. Beat the eggs, sugar, almond extract, and zest together in another medium-size bowl.


3. Fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture. Add in the melted butter.


4. Preheat your pizzelle iron according to the manufacturer's instructions. Drop 1 tablespoon of the batter onto each patterned cookie grid on the bottom plate of the iron. Close the iron and cook the pizzelles according to the manufacturer’s instructions.


5. Remove the cookies from the iron and place them on a rack to cool. When you’re ready to serve, dust with confectioners' sugar.

 
No matter what the cookie—Pizzelles, macaroons, sugar cookies—we Venables love to bake at Christmastime.
 


Here’s your blog question for today…what kind of Christmas cookies are you most looking forward to? Sugar? Chocolate chip? Raisin-filled? Be sure to check out my desserts page on QVC.com before you start baking. We’ve got cookies, brownies, bars, and those terrific little Buckeyes that we featured last month.
 
I’ll see you Sunday at Noon ET!
 
Keep it flavorful!
—David