Cioppino is a stew that uses any number of mixed seafood, in their shells, cooked in a tomato based broth with red wine. It is messy and typically served with a bib in restaurants. Developed in the late 1800s to use up the catch hauled in by San Francisco fishermen, it has since grown to be a staple menu item for many seafood houses today. There is no hard and fast rule for what seafood goes into a cioppino recipe, but crab, shrimp, clams, mussels, lobster, squid, and just about whatever chopped fresh fish a cook has landed are good candidates for the stew. The recipe below is adapted from the 1960s classic cookbook, Lake Stream Sea Food Cookbook, and uses striped bass, local lobster, clams, and shrimp.
Cioppino Recipe
A classic fish and seafood stew recipe with tomatoes, red wine, and garlic.
- Sauce
- 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
- 1 cup chopped green peppers
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 cups solid pack tomatoes
- 2 1/2 cups red wine
- 2 cups tomato juice
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
- Seafood
- 3 pounds filleted striped bass cut into larger bite size pieces
- 1 large lobster tail cooked, and cut into chunks, shell and all
- About 15 clams scrubbed, unshucked
- 1 1/2 cups whole shrimp shell on, heads removed
Adapted from Lake Stream Sea Food Cookbook.
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