Bricco in West Hartford got the holidays off to a terrific start with a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner, a Christmas Eve tradition observed by many southern Italians and Italian-Americans. I remember high school classmates discussing the Vigilia di Natale, or vigil for the birth of the baby Jesus, which typically involved a meatless, multicourse Christmas Eve feast followed by Midnight Mass.
At the invitation of all-around good guy Billy Grant,
my dining companion and I joined a sellout Bricco crowd (which can happen any night of any week).
My companion was my friend Rose (Say “hi,” Rose!), who had never had the pleasure of a meal at Bricco before.
Rose and I were well cared for by the very cute and highly competent Melissa, who deserves better than this blurry photograph I managed to snap.
Rose and I began with crusty Italian bread and focaccia,
which we enjoyed with three options: a sweet potato purée, good hotel butter and Monini extra virgin olive oil.
Servers periodically dropped off tastes of Billy’s popular grape bread as well.
The first course was bakala, crostini smothered with a delicious salt cod and potato purée, a perfect counterpoint provided by vinegary greens.
The second course was fresh, tender octopus and scungilli alla puttanesca.
The third course featured fried smelts and calamari served over an arugula salad. Delicious!
Each offering was tough to top, but the fourth course, showcasing a beautiful pancetta-wrapped prawn served over a fennel purée with gremolata, became my new favorite.
Served over crostini, the fifth course turned out to be escargots finished with roasted pepper, white wine and garlic butter.
The sixth course really was my favorite, freshly shucked clams in pink sauce served over wonderfully al dente linguine noodles. It was the best clams over linguini either of us had ever had.
Apparently, some people avoid dairy as well as meat products during the Feast of the Seven Fishes, and therefore, we might have technically violated the prohibitions in accepting grated Parmesan (or buttering our bread). But we were certainly honoring the tradition in spirit.
Our seventh and final fish course was an incredibly fresh fillet of red snapper served with escarole, San Marzano tomatoes, cannellini beans and extra virgin olive oil.
And finally, we ended the incredibly tasty and filling feast with a olive oil gelato served with biscotti.
I close with a photograph of Rose and Bricco manager, Nicole.
Bricco, 78 La Salle Road, West Hartford, 860-233-0220