Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino upholds the Italian-American tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve — and his seafood dinner is so nice, he eats it twice, including the next morning.
“On Christmas Day for breakfast I have Christmas Eve’s dinner, which is usually crab [in] linguine sauce, also with shrimp oreganata, also calamari oreganata,” he told The Post.
“So it’s pretty much everything oreganata, and I just eat it for breakfast with a Diet Coke. And I just love it. It’s like a little tradition that I do.”
This year the “Jersey Shore” star and his wife, Lauren Pesce, whose last name happens to mean “fish” in Italian, are hosting the holiday at their Holmdel, N.J. mansion with a catered meal from Osteria, an Italian restaurant in Marlboro.
Their mouth-watering menu reads like a laundry list of Italian culinary classics, with dishes of calamari, shrimp, clams and lobster — all prepared oreganata style, which means topped with breadcrumbs and oregano.
“A fried shrimp tray, clams linguine red [sauce], a frutti di mare tray, which is a seafood salad,” Sorrentino, 41, continued.
The extravagant feast will also consist of non-fish dishes — an antipasto board filled with meat and cheese, penne in vodka sauce, linguine in garlic and oil, Caesar salad, broccoli rabe and chicken cutlets.
“To be honest with you, I could not go on one of my favorite holidays of the year and not have a chicken cutlet,” he said. “We also have a tray of chicken fingers and French fries for the kids.”
Sorrentino, whose memoir “Reality Check: Making the Best of The Situation” — How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison” was released on Dec. 19, also asked one of his “Jersey Shore” castmates to join in on the seafood splurge.
“I invited Vinny Guadagnino over for Christmas Eve because he lives in New York City, so sometimes he’s hopping around, the bachelor that he is,” he said. “I said, ‘Listen, there’s a seat open for you’ and sent him the menu to try to entice him that we’re going to have everything under the sun here.”
The reality star’s barber also got an invitation.
“I get a haircut three times a week, so it’s only right that I invite him over for Christmas Eve,” he said.
Sorrentino, who has two children — Romeo Reign, 2, and Mia Bella, 10 months — with Pesce and one on the way, will even perform a fatherly holiday duty later on in the evening.
“I’m going to be dressing up as Santa this year for the kids,” he said. “It’s very exciting because the 2-year-old, he’s recognizing Santa and what Christmas is.”
There will be around 20 guests around their dinner table, including both Sorrentino’s and Pesce’s families.
“Sometimes there’s an argument in Italian families on who actually is gonna get Christmas Eve because Christmas Eve is a very coveted holiday,” he said. “This year I won the lotto.”
Source link
