Cioppino: A San Francisco Fisherman's Stew
Cioppino is a hearty, tomato-based seafood stew that is uniquely San Franciscan, tracing its roots back to the Italian immigrant fishermen who settled in the city's North Beach neighborhood and worked off the waterfront (then called Meigg's Wharf) in the late 1800s. It was a resourceful dish born of necessity, traditionally made with the leftover catch of the day—often including Dungeness crab, clams, mussels, and various fish—simmered in a rich broth flavored with local tomatoes, wine, and herbs. The popular, though possibly apocryphal, legend holds that when a fisherman returned with an empty boat, he would circulate among his peers asking them to "chip in" some of their own catch for a communal meal; this phrase, spoken in a thick Italian accent, is said to have evolved into the name "Cioppino," while the name's true etymology likely comes from ciuppin, a Ligurian dialect word for a similar fish soup from Genoa, Italy.
There are many recipes online for Cioppino. Most call for tomatoes, wine, fish broth, seasonings, and seafood. If you want to be traditional, you would definitely use Dungeness Crab, shrimp, mussels, clams, squid, scallops, and fish that are local to the Bay Area, which would include Pacific cod, smelt, and halibut. Nowadays, we must consider the timing of the Dungeness crab season. The commercial Dungeness crab season in the Bay Area typically begins in January. Still, it is often delayed to protect whales from getting tangled in nets, and the season closes in May. A close substitute off-season is the blue crab or snow crab.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of extra virgin California olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 onion, peeled and diced
1/2 cup dry white wine (optional)
2 28-ounce cans San Marzano tomatoes, roughly chopped with the broth
3 cups fish or chicken broth
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon Korean red pepper
sea salt to taste (add at the very end)
1 cup small clams in shell
1 cup mussels out of the shell
1/2 cup crab claw meat
6 blue crab claws or Dungeness crab claws
8 ounces Pacific cod, halibut, flounder, or snapper (sturdy mild fish)
chopped parsley for garnish
Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch Oven. Sauté the garlic and onion until golden, about 3 minutes. Add the white wine and cook for 1 minute, allowing the alcohol to evaporate. Add the tomatoes, broth, and seasonings. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
Boil the crabs or crab claws if they are raw. Sauté the cod in olive oil, then add a little of the tomato broth and poach the fish on the stove to cook it through. In another pan, heat the clams, mussels, shrimp, and squid in additional tomato broth. If you are using raw ones, cook them in batches in the tomato broth. Save the broth to put back in the pot.
Ladle the hot tomato broth into large pasta or soup bowls. Add the seafood, dividing it between the bowls. This way, you have a gorgeous broth and seafood that are cooked perfectly. If you want to present the whole pot of stew, you can add the heated seafood carefully at the end, along with the broth it was cooked in. I made it this way to style it for the shoot, and then fell in love with the way it looked and tasted at my dinner table.
Serve with chopped parsley on top and crusty bread, accompanied by garlic butter. (Heat the bread in a 350-degree oven for 10 minutes to make it “crusty”.)
Garlic butter
1/2 pound butter at room temperature
2 cloves garlic, finely minced or crushed
1 tsp garlic powder
pinch sea salt or more to taste
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
black pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Mix all together in a mixing bowl with a paddle until fluffy. Place in a bowl and serve with the crusty bread. If you have leftover butter, it is a good idea to roll it up in a sausage-like roll in parchment paper and freeze it for later use.
Photos of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco:
