Feast of the Seven Fishes HELP!

[ambra]

I am planning a Feast of the Seven Fishes for 18 people.

Basically, I am doing it Italian style in that I am serving Antipasto, Primo (Pasta course) and Secondo (Protein course).

Here’s the menu so far:

Antipasto Course

Anchovies and smoked salmon crostini (separately of course.)

Pettole (Fried Dough)

Pasta Course

Either going to be a family tradition they call Salsa Rosa made with Shrimp and Brandy or Spaghetti with Clam Sauce. Depending on whether or not they can find the recipe for the Salsa Rosa.

The Protein Course

Stuffed Calamari

Octopus with Wine and Potatoes

Fried Baccala

Shrimp preparation TBD

Big Fish TBD depending on what is available and beautiful.

My question is this? How much fish do I buy?

For the Crostini, I will buy enough for 2 pieces of each per person.

For the Pasta, we measure about 80-100 grams of pasta per person. Multiply the original recipe til you get the amount you need. Easy enough….

However, for the main course, I have no idea how much of each to buy! I remember my mother used to calculate a half a pound per person, but how do I figure that out when I are serving multiple mains- how do you calculate?

I don’t want to have too little food, but at the same time, I don’t want too many leftovers as it’s Christmas eve dinner and we are also having Christmas dinner the next day and Santo Stefano the day after.

I would like everyone to taste each fish dish, but I don’t think I need a full portion of each dish for each person.

Does that make sense? Can anyone help? Is it just too complicated for 19 people?

[baroness]

The Seven Fishes feasts I've attended (thankfully never had to cook!) invariably had a huge amount of leftovers.

To avoid this problem, for the main course, I think I would figure half to three-quarters of a pound total (net-no shells, etc.) per person. The tricky part is apportioning that among the 5 dishes. For my audience, I would do the largest amounts of calamari and shrimp, then fish, then the octopus and baccala. YMMV.