Beth Talarico was a little kid with an urgent question that needed a straight answer after her family’s annual schlep up to Erie to her Italian grandmother’s house for Christmas Eve dinner. “I'm like, ‘Dad, I gotta talk to you,’” she said. Then she dropped the bomb: “Why does gram’s spaghetti sauce taste [funny]?”

Her father Joe laughed and explained that there was fish in the sauce called baccala, something which made the gears grind in Beth’s mind. “What the heck do they do that for?” she demanded to know. Tradition, he said. Italians don’t eat meat on Christmas Eve. The Talaricos, like so many Italian-American families, celebrated the holiday with the Feast of the Seven Fishes.