Cioppino is a San Francisco dish with Italian roots. A fisherman’s stew made of whatever is on hand after a long day on the water. There are many iterations in the Bay Area and everyone has their favorite.
I am partial to the thicker, deeper broths, as I am a sauce junkie and must have something to swab up with my sourdough bread (topped with cold butter.) Gah! So good!
This time, I made it with a few spoonful’s of one of my favorite go- to ingredients: Napa Valley Rub from Whole Spice. I put this stuff in everything.) The spice mix added that extra flavor, depth and a bit of texture to the broth, and I was happy as a clam…
Speaking of clams, I used to use clam juice or veggie stock before I started making my own seafood stock. Now, I make it, cool, strain, portion and freeze it until I am making a chowder or stew. The process of stock making is very simple, and there is a satisfaction in being gracefully economical with “scraps”. You collect all your shrimp, crab, and or lobster shells, and you can freeze them until you are ready to make stock. I also sometimes have a freezer bag with bits of carrots, celery, onion etc. for making stock when I have the time. Give it a try. Here is a link to a rather comprehensive James Peterson piece on how to make your own shellfish stock, pictures included.
Recipe
Left-Coast Cioppino
Make the broth up to 2 days before. Like many things it gets better with a little time to let the flavors marry. Serves 6.INGREDIENTS
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 Bulb fennel, small, finely chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 ribs celery, finely chopped
- 2 cups dry red or white wine
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 generous pinch hot pepper flakes
- 1-1 ½ tbsp Napa Valley Rub or 1 tsp rosemary chopped
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 bay leaf
- 3 cups seafood or fish stock, or clam juice (see above about making your own stock)
- 28 oz can chopped tomatoes with juices
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- Salt and pepper
- 20 clams, rinsed
- 12 oz Pacific cod fillets
- 15-20 mussels, debearded and scrubbed
- 1 whole cooked Dungeness crab, cleaned and cut into quarters
- 1 lb wild caught shrimp in the shell
- 1 cup Italian parsley leaves, chopped
- 1 French baguette
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Cook the onion, fennel, celery and garlic until soft – not browned. Add paprika, hot pepper flakes, napa Valley Rub or other herbs, bay leaf and stir for 30 seconds. Add wine and simmer till reduced by half, about 7-10 minutes. Add tomatoes and stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in Worcestershire. Let cool.
- When cool enough to handle, remove the bay leaf and carefully puree ½ of sauce in a blender or with an immersible blender, then add back to the pot.
- At this point, keeping in mind that the seafood will add salt when it is added, correct spices and seasoning and either keep warm or refrigerate up to 2 days until ready to make stew.
- When ready, reheat broth over a low heat until hot. Add clams mussels, and crab, and cover the pot and steam until clams are opened (about 10 Minutes). After 5 minutes, add fish and shellfish. Cook everything until the shrimp are pink, and everything is hot.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper. Discard all the mussels and clams that didn’t open – they are bad.
- Scatter parsley over stew. Serve with lemon wedges, hot sourdough baguette, and butter.