cioppino

From Italy, With Love

We're worlds away from the Mediterranean Sea, but with the Strip District's fresh-fish markets and a little imagination, you can turn your summer kitchen into a steamy Italian cucina with this rich seafood stew. Now, that's amoré!

As a long peninsula jutting out into the Mediterranean from the European mainland, Italy is a place where practically everyone lives near the sea. When immigrants came to America, they brought with them the endless regional versions of their beloved zuppa di pesce, or fish soup. Like so many other dishes, the recipe they adapted depended on the available ingredients in various regions, yet certain basic qualities remained intact. This hearty, improvisational stew was originally a three-step process that started with a spicy tomato sauce simmered to perfection. Next, rich fish broth was added to turn the sauce into soup, and then shrimp, crabs, clams, mussels, squid, scallops and other fish were added carefully to the liquid to cook.

There is an apocryphal story claiming that cioppino, the name for the San Francisco version of the soup, derived from calls from the docks to the returning fishing boats to "chip in" some of their catch for a communal stew pot. There, workers and seamen could gather around to eat, dip their chunks of sourdough bread and retell the stories of the day. More likely is the presence of some Genovese fishermen whose Ligurian dialect for the dish is "ciuppin." Whatever you decide to call the dish, the multi-stage process is well worth the effort in terms of the depth of flavor you can achieve. This makes for a wonderfully messy, slow-paced and satisfying dining experience. Make sure there is plenty of good bread on hand with which to soak up the sauce, and don't forget the napkins to wipe up the chins.

Cioppino Serves 4
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion, chopped 1 head of anise, chopped 1 green pepper, chopped 4 cloves garlic, finely minced 2 cups red wine 1 can (28 ounces) peeled plum tomatoes 1 bay leaf 1 teaspoon dry oregano 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional) Salt to taste 2 tablespoons fresh chopped basil 4 cups fish stock (see below) 2 blue-claw crabs 12 sea scallops 12 large shrimp 2 red snappers 12 little-neck clams 8 mussels	Instructions: Clean the seafood. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the onion, anise and pepper and sauté until wilted. Add the minced garlic and the wine. Bring to a boil and reduce by almost half. Break up the tomatoes with your hands and add to the pot along with the bay leaf, oregano, pepper flakes and salt. When the mixture begins to boil, reduce to a simmer and let cook for 20 minutes. Add the fish stock to the tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Add the crab halves and cook for 5 minutes. Add the scallops, shrimp and fish pieces and cook another 5 minutes. Finally, add the clams and mussels, sprinkle with the fresh basil and cover the pot. Cook another 5 minutes until the clams and mussels have opened. Discard any that do not open. Serve in deep soup bowls.
Fish Stock for Cioppino
Ingredients: 12 large shrimp 12 sea scallops 2 red snappers 8 mussels 12 little-neck clams 2 blue-claw crabs	Instructions: Peel and de-vein the shrimp, reserving the shells. Remove the tough side muscle on the scallops and reserve. Cut fillets from the snapper and reserve the head, tail skin and bones. Scrub the mussels and clams with a brush and remove beards from mussels. Clean the crabs and break each into 2 sections. Add the reserved shrimp shells, scallop muscles and fish parts to 5 cups of water. Add 1 roughly chopped onion and 2 roughly chopped stalks of celery. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Strain through several layers of cheesecloth or a fine-mesh strainer. You should have about 4 cups.
Sourdough Bread
Ingredients: Sponge: 1 cup water 1 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon yeast 1 teaspoon sugar Dough: 3 cups flour 1 tablespoon yeast 1 tablespoon salt 1 cup warm water	Instructions: On the day before you are to bake the bread, mix the sponge ingredients and keep at room temperature in a loosely covered container. Stir it down every few hours. The next day, mix the sponge with 3 cups of flour, the yeast and salt and 1 cup of warm water. Mix until a dough forms. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead for 8 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put into a greased bowl and cover. Let rise for an hour. Divide the dough in half and knead each half into a round loaf. Put onto a parchment-paper-lined baking tray and let rise again for another hour. Just before baking, you can brush the top with a little beaten egg white and make two or three slashes in the top. Bake at 400 degrees until dark golden-brown. More Recipes Printer Friendly Page