Recipe

My Cioppino Italian Seafood Stew Recipe


My Cioppino Italian Seafood Stew Recipe
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What do I love about cioppino? It's delicious, it's savory, it's spicy, it's a crowd pleaser - and it's totally adaptable...it fits the seafood you love and crave - and have access to. I started making this about five years ago as an Italian Christm... More

Lunasea

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Ingredients
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 to 3 flat fillets of anchovies, drained (in olive oil, preferred)
  • 1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
  • 1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced (the anise flavor totally mellows out as it cooks and adds such a depth of background flavor - essential)
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 3 large shallots, chopped
  • 2 celery ribs, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
  • 1/3 cup tomato paste (if you want more, add ½ cup)
  • 1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes in juice
  • 1 1/2 cups dry white wine (if I don’t have white wine, I add beer)
  • 5 cups fish stock (can use clam juice or chicken broth or any combination)
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed (about 1 tablespoon fresh - or you could use 1 teaspoon dried thyme if you can't get the fresh)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 pound clams, scrubbed
  • 1 pound mussels, scrubbed, debearded
  • 1 pound oysters, shucked and in their liquor
  • 1 pound uncooked large shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 1/2 pound sea scallops (or can use bay scallops for a little sweeter taste)
  • ¼ pound squid
  • ¼ pound octopus
  • ¼ pound cuttlefish (optional – but delicious!)
  • 1 1/2 pounds assorted firm-fleshed fish fillets such as halibut or cod, cut into 1-inch chunks
  • 1 handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • Optional: Sub in lobster and/or crab - your faves...yummm!
  • Crusty bread for sopping the juice…so good…a must have, peeps.

Directions
  1. Heat the oil in a very large pot over medium heat.
  2. Add anchovies - let melt into oil.
  3. Add the fennel, onion, shallots, celery, salt and black pepper and saute until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes.
  4. Stir tomato paste into veggies and let cook out for about 3-5 minutes (the tomato paste will start to caramelize, turning from red to a brownish color).
  5. Add the garlic and 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, and cook 2 minutes.
  6. Add tomatoes with their juices, wine, fish stock, thyme and bay leaf.
  7. Cover and bring to a simmer.
  8. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer on medium-low until the flavors blend - at least an hour...but I like to let it go for a couple of hours.
  9. Add the clams, mussels and oysters to the cooking liquid. Cover and cook until the clams and mussels begin to open, about 5 minutes.
  10. Add the shrimp, scallops, squid, octopus, cuttlefish and fish. Simmer gently until the fish and shrimp are just cooked through, and the clams are completely open, stirring gently, about 5 minutes longer (discard any clams and mussels that do not open).
  11. Remove bay leaf. Season the soup, to taste, with more salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes.
  12. Ladle the soup into bowls, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with crusty bread.

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Comments


Wow, you are generous and ambitious to serve this fabulous-sounding dish! It looks positively beautiful and impressive. Lunie - move to Ca. and invite us!!! (it's January 12 and it was in the upper 80's and sunny here today. bliss...)


All in can say is OMG! What time is dinz? You rock Vickie!
M


Oh, now you're just making me drool! That looks so icredible, when can you ship me a big bowlful? Luna, you really DO rock!


Wow....simply great....nice pict....loved it....thx vickie for sharing...hi 5 fr me


Oh Wow, your recipe takes me right back to when we drove along the Pacific Coast Highway from Palm Springs to San Francisco, once for our vacation. I fell in love with Cioppino at Scoma's it was served with a whole sourdough loaf (Bliss)thank you Lunasea for this recipe
Astro


I could never get enough of this fantastic recipe Vickie like you say it has all the elements we both love and my guest often request second and thirds until it is all gone. So that is why I placed it in my group Most Requested Recipe.

The color and presentation are wonderful.
Flagged as beautiful and unique ..Highest rating on the Yum index a new term here, Perfect!

Five forks and a brimming smile from ear to ear


This sounds scrumptious, sweety you have out done yourself. HIGH 5


Just reading the description is making me drool! I love seafood, and this recipe has it all! What a great offering of flavors here! Looks absolutely beautiful, too! A beauty flag is coming your way, and high 20!!!


OH MY GOSH!! What a dish,this would be wonderful to set down to and enjoy all the flavor.

Thank-you very much for sharing.

Kind Regards


This, my dear, is a piece of work. I mean that is a good way. The list of varied seafood is a buffet in itself. I love Chioppinos. Most recipes I have tried pale in comparison to this. This will definitely be the next recipe I use... Thanks Vickie ....... Jim


Vickie, this recipe looks wonderful. I am adding this one to my collection, the dept of flavors are just superb. I know my family will enjoy this one! Thanks for sharing Vickie! Judy


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