Cioppino is a tomato-based seafood stew invented by Italian fishermen in San Francisco in the late 1800s using seafood left over from the day’s catch. In the spirit of true cioppino you don’t have to use the exact seafood ingredients in the recipe below. Use what you can get. Any seafood will work. This is a Dungeness crab recipe so do try to use crab meat, even if canned.
Accompany your meal with warm sourdough or toasted sourdough garlic bread and a good, robust red wine, such as a Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Bordeaux, or Chianti.
Please use Seafood Watch to select your crab, clams, mussels, shrimp, fish, and scallops to keep our seafood food sources sustainable and to make sure it’s safe to eat.
EQUIPMENT: Instant Pot or large heavy bottom pot, hardwood spatula
Cioppino
Cuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium6
servings30
minutes40
minutesTraditional tomato-based fisherman’s seafood stew. Use whatever seafood you can get. Try to get crab.
Ingredients
2 Dungeness crabs; steamed, cleaned and cracked, fat reserved*
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons organic unsalted butter
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 sprig thyme
2 bay leaves
1 cup dry (not sweet) white wine or Vermouth
1 cup good red wine
1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano
1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
2 cups freshly made fish stock (use the above seafood shells and fish bones, except for the clams and mussels)**
1 can (28 oz) peeled San Marzano tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 can (28 oz) can tomato sauce
1/4 cup tomato paste
crab fat
12 hard shell clams
12 whole mussels
1/2 lb lingcod, rockfish, or other firm, white fish, cubed and seasoned with sea salt and freshly ground black peppercorns
12 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 sea scallops
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
3 fresh basil leaves, chiffonade; divided
Directions
- Scrub the mussels well in water with a dish brush. Rinse the clams.
- Press “Sauté” and “More” on the Instant Pot. Add olive oil. When it starts to shimmer add the butter and stir.
- When butter has melted add onion, garlic, thyme, and bay leaves and sweat until the onion is translucent.
- Add both wines, Old Bay, oregano, red pepper flakes, and Worcestershire.
- Bring to a boil.
- Add the fish stock, all of the tomato ingredients, crab fat, and Worcestershire.
- Stir and press “Slow Cook.”
- Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Stir in the clams, mussels, fish, and shrimp.
- Simmer 5 minutes.
- Gently stir in the crab, scallops and parsley.
- Simmer until the clams and mussels open. Discard any that don’t open when you’re sure they have been cooked long enough and without overcooking the rest of the seafood.
- Taste and correct the seasoning.
- Serve in individual bowls garnished with a few grinds of black peppercorns and basil.
Notes
- *use crab local to your region
- **substitute two 8 oz bottles of clam juice
I have not made this recipe yet. Do you recommend adding the dungeness crab at step 6 or 9?
The dungeness crab has already been cooked so I recommend adding it stuff 11.
Thank you for pointing out that I actually omitted that!