What to Make for Christmas Dinner
My Christmas dinner menu, plus other menu ideas for the holiday season. Also, is Christmas fettuccini a real thing?
What I love about holiday food is that it’s different for everyone, unlike the more predictable Thanksgiving dinner. What you eat can depend on your ethnicity, religion, location, or even quirky family traditions. Holidays tend to bring out the peculiarities in most families. As soon as the trees and decorations go up, everyone surrenders to their favorite holiday rituals, no matter how different they may be. There’s no right or wrong food during the holiday season—it’s whatever makes you the happiest and most grateful. And that’s what makes this the best time of year. Festivus for the rest of us!
Since my family doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving the traditional way, Christmas dinner is our big holiday meal. Out come the tablecloths, my mom’s 20-year-old pewter goblets, the nice tableware and cutlery, and all the All-Clad pots and pans are on deck. I’m usually in the kitchen, with whoever dares to help, while everyone else ends up doing the cleanup (which is all the more reason to be the cook in the family). Some years, I go all out and really work myself to the bone, and other years, I try to keep things simple. But no matter what’s on the menu, my family loves the tradition of Christmas Eve dinner at my parents’ cozy home, and I love cooking it.
My Xmas Menu
The contrarian in me always imagines making something unusual for our Christmas dinner. Last year, we made pasta, and the year before that, we made latkes. Here’s what I’m thinking for this year.
To start: Potato chips with crème fraîche, caviar, and chives. I thought it would be so fun to incorporate something extra special for dinner, so I bought a 1.5 oz tin of caviar from Fish Wife, complete with big-batch martinis.
Caviar
Big Batch MartinisSalad: Little gem lettuce and shaved fennel, dressed with the simple Dijon vinaigrette from my salad post. The fennel helps with digestion after a heavy meal—at least, that’s what I tell myself. The dressing can be made ahead and stored for up to a week. Recipe below.
Pasta Alla Vodka: This pasta has almost become synonymous with the restaurant Carbone, and for good reason. Regardless of your feelings about its cult status, my dad loves it—and so do I. I got the idea of making pasta for Christmas from Nancy Meyers’ movie The Holiday. Like many people on the internet, I too have googled ‘Is Christmas fettuccine a thing?’ No one seems to know on Reddit, but maybe it should be. Recipe
Rusticciana: These are Tuscan-style ribs. I first had them at Antico Nuovo in L.A. this year, and I’ve been making them in my cooking classes ever since. They’re a crowd favorite, packed with holiday flavors like fennel and rosemary. Recipe
Acorn Squash with Brown Butter and Agrodolce: I first had this dish at Carbone two years ago. It was so good, I knew I had to come up with my own recipe. I did, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite recipes to teach in my cooking classes. It’s sweet, sour, savory, and decadent—perfect for Christmas dinner. Recipe below.
Zabaglione for Dessert: Zabaglione is an Italian frothy sauce made from egg yolks, sugar, and a sweet wine like Marsala. It’s so old-school and the perfect ending to this meal. My family loves it over vanilla ice cream and fresh berries. How fabulous would it be served in vintage French stainless steel cups? Recipe
Other ideas
Pork Marbella: If you look at this recipe and think, ‘My family wouldn’t like this because of the weird ingredient list,’ just read the comment section. Or take my word for it—EVERYONE loves this dish, no matter what’s in it, period! Plus, the effort-to-wow-factor ratio is next level. Serve it with polenta or mashed potatoes, a salad, and a simple vegetable. Plate it just like this photo, and I’ll bet it’ll be the fanciest thing you’ve ever made for Christmas. Recipe
Hanukah: I hope the internet doesn’t cancel me for cultural appropriation, but I’ve always thought it would be so fun to do some traditional Jewish dishes for Christmas dinner (insert nervous emoji). Look, I come from a religion that has no traditional dishes attached to it—at all. The idea of having an entire menu linked to a holiday is just so cool to me and I personally love some of these recipes on their own.
Here’s how I would do it.
Latkes: I’ve made these many times, and they’re such a pleasure. If you’ve never made latkes, this might be the perfect year to tryt. They’re also fun to make as a group. A latke is a fried potato pancake served with applesauce or sour cream and lox. Don’t knock it till you try it. Recipe
Matzo Ball Soup: This recipe will be a success the first time you make it. Recipe
Brisket: I’ve never made brisket, but if I ever do I will make Alison Roman’s recipe.
Citrus Salad with Fennel and Olives: Winter is citrus season, in case you didn’t know, and this salad is bright, fresh, and delicious. Recipe
Black and White Cookies: “Look to the cookie.” – Jerry Seinfeld. These are so flipping yummy—they’re more like cake than cookies. Recipe
For breakfast, you can make a French toast casserole with a loaf of challah to round out the theme. This recipe is top 5 favorite breakfasts.
Beef tenderloin: This might be an unpopular opinion, but I think beef tenderloin gives you more bang for your buck compared to prime rib. Hear me out: it’s so much more manageable to cook, and you can eat every last piece of it. When cooked properly, a beef tenderloin delivers a delectable, savory main dish that everyone will love and is just as impressive as a hunk of fatty prime rib (don’t get me wrong, I do love a fatty, bloody prime rib, but the. majority of the people I cook for do no). Make it extra ’70s and serve shrimp cocktail or scampi, an updated wedge salad, and maybe a homemade pie to make it a bit more traditional.
Garlicky Beef Tenderloin: The only beef tenderloin recipe I use. However, I skip the orange horseradish sauce and make a plain sour cream version. Recipe
Shrimp Cocktail: Costco has a great shrimp cocktail—imo.
or Shrimp Scampi: Recipe
Wedge Salad: I never order a wedge salad, but I LOVE making this salad. It’s such a great recipe and it would be great with a beef tenderloin. Recipe
Apple Crumb Pie: I haven’t made this yet, but the amount of reviews should vouch for it. Recipe
Melissa Clark’s Garlicky Beef Tenderloin NYT | Bon Appetit Wedge Salad | Bon Appetit Apple Crumb Pie
What’s for breakfast?
Breakfast Casserole: I’m going to assume that most of us grew up eating something specific on Christmas morning. My family still makes the same breakfast casserole, and we look forward to it more than our presents—at least, the adults do. If you don’t have a breakfast tradition, give this casserole a try and serve it with freshly squeezed orange juice. It sits in the fridge overnight, so it’s perfect for all the morning chaos—you just pop it in the oven.
Panetone French Toast: Another fun idea is to buy a Panettone and make French toast with it. If you don’t know what Panettone is, it’s a naturally leavened sweet Italian cake. They’re insanely hard to make, which is why you typically order them online this time of year. They’re expensive, but hey, it’s the holidays. Recipe
Please share your favorite holiday food traditions and let me know what you’re making this holiday season. Happy, Happy Holidays!
P.S. If you’ve ever wanted to make a croquembouche for the holidays, but don’t really want to make a croquembouche, make one out of clementines. Too easy!
