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    Cioppino

    San Francisco's fishermen's stew of the day's catch, white fish, crab, clams, mussels and prawns, finished in a tomato and red wine broth with fennel and chilli. The quick version here comes from the Pacific Fishery Management Council; the dish itself was first printed in 1901.

    Location: San Francisco, United States of America
    Servings
    4
    Preparation
    20 min
    Cooking
    35 min
    Total
    55 min
    Difficulty
    Easy

    Equipment

    • Heavy 5–6 litre pot with a lid
    • Food processor (or a knife)
    Servings4

    Ingredients

    • Broth

    • Seafood

    • To serve

    Shopping list

    Method

    1. Pulse the fennel, onion and garlic in the food processor until coarsely chopped.

    2. Heat the oil over a medium-high heat until it shimmers. Stir in the vegetables, bay, thyme, chilli, salt and pepper. Cover and cook over a medium heat, stirring once or twice, for about 4 minutes until they start to soften.

      Timer · 4 min4:00

    3. Add the tomatoes, water, wine and clam juice and boil, covered, for 20 minutes.

      Timer · 20 min20:00

    4. Add the seafood and cook uncovered for 4–6 minutes, until the fish is just cooked and the mussels and clams have opened. Discard any still closed after 6 minutes, and the bay leaves. Serve with bread.

      Why Seafood goes in last because it needs minutes, not the 20 the base needs. The base can be made ahead.

      Timer · 6 min6:00

    Substitutions

    • Red wine → Dry white wine; the 1901 'chespini' used white.
    • Clam juice → Fish stock (check it for celery).

    Common mistakes

    • Simmering the seafood in the base for long: the fish breaks up and the prawns toughen.

    Storage & reheating

    The tomato base keeps 3 days in the fridge or freezes well. Cooked seafood is best eaten at once.

    Safety

    Contains fish, crustaceans, molluscs and sulphites (wine). Discard shellfish that stay closed after cooking. Keep raw shellfish cold until it goes into the pot.

    Allergens

    Fish · Crustaceans · Molluscs · Sulphites

    Check labels: stock, bacon and sauces can contain further allergens.

    Dietary

    dairy-free

    Genoese fishermen on Meiggs' Wharf

    KQED's 2018 investigation agrees with the Pacific Fishery Management Council that Italian immigrant fishermen invented cioppino in San Francisco, around Meiggs' Wharf, mostly men from Genoa. The historian Erica Peters found a 1901 San Francisco Call article in which a reporter on a fishing boat described "chespini": olive oil, a clove of garlic, two tomatoes, two chili peppers, a glass of white wine and fish cut in squares, cooked for three minutes. A recipe appeared in the Refugees' Cook Book, a fundraiser after the 1906 earthquake.

    The popular story that the name comes from fishermen calling out "chip in" is, according to KQED's sources, unlikely; the Ligurian fish soup ciuppin is the more probable root.

    [1][2]

    A base and a quick finish

    The tomato, wine and fennel base boils for 20 minutes and can be made ahead. Shellfish and fish go in at the end and cook in 4–6 minutes. In San Francisco the catch is usually Dungeness crab, clams, prawns, scallops, squid, mussels and fish, according to the Fishery Council.

    [2]

    How it connects

    Place

    • origin San Francisco In preparation

    Recipe

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