Last year you prepared delicious baked lasagna. The year before the cappelletti in brodo and this year, you do not know where to find the right inspiration. Tagliatelle with ragu? Tomato pasta with chicken sauce?
The answer may not be so obvious. The first Christmas dishes in fact are many more than those commonly used and are characterized by the choice of seasonal ingredients, cooking often unusual and pastas fresh. To egg, with simple water and flour or with potatoes, as in the case of gnocchi.
To make these bases even more special, delicate sauces, crustaceans, spices, dried fruit and wines. Which enrich the recipes transforming each risotto, fresh pasta and ravioli in the most awaited course of the entire Christmas lunch.

Yes to the contrasts

First Christmas dishes require bright flavors, just like the lights of the party. Yes to the sweet and savory combination, to the small acid notes that refresh the richest dishes and to the dried fruit grains that surprise with a crunchy consistency. Thanks to these small measures we can turn every first course into a party recipe. Seeing is believing!

Meat or fish?

This choice is different depending on the traditions of each family, but can be renewed thanks to a new project on the menu. For example, if you are choosing a recipe among Christmas dishes that will precede a course like roast, take into consideration also the preparations based on crustaceans. In case you have decided to propose a second based on fish instead, go ahead to shells, blue fish and molluscs.
The first based on meat, vegetables or cheese instead, they must be chosen in combination with the second in order to highlight it without "obscuring it". Recipes with a strong taste based on sausage or zola for example, could inhibit the taste of a second delicate course or be too substantial in a menu that includes four dishes. The advice is therefore to choose dishes that live in harmony with each other to compose a greedy but balanced menu.

And now … you just have to choose the perfect first course of your Christmas menu! In the gallery above, our 30 first Christmas dishes