Cioppino (Seafood Stew)

I know many of you are thinking, what in the world is a cioppino!? A cioppino (cha-PE-no) originated in San Francisco, California as an Italian-American cuisine. It's basically a seafood stew with an Italian flair. San Francisco is famous for their fresh seafood so why not throw it all in one pot? Brad and I moved from a beautiful island town on the East Coast to further inland and we both miss the fresh seafood. One cold, rainy, winter day Brad and I were both craving seafood, but we wanted a soup/stew as well because it was cold. One of the perfect things about the world today is all I had to do was google seafood stew on my smartphone and voila--cioppino. Never heard of it before, but it sounded yummy and it looked so easy to tweak and make into whatever we want/could actually afford.

Cioppino

Ingredients:

Seafood Stock

White Wine

White Onion, chopped

Fresh Garlic, minced

Mussels

Shrimp, peeled and deveined

Clams

Perch (or any sturdy white fish, such as halibut)

Tomato Paste

Butter

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1. For me, one of the key things to make any recipe go smoother and not make my husband want to strangle me, is to prep everything before you start. With everything already cleaned and chopped it's much easier to just throw into the pot, especially with seafood items. When cleaning clams and mussels they must still be alive, so freshness is key. Remove the beards and scrub. If they are already open, give them a tap on the shell. If they close, it's still alive, but if they do not then it is already dead and you'll need to throw them away.

2. Add about 1Tbsp of butter and 1 Tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil to a large pot. Add your chopped onion and minced garlic until soft. I always pull out my enamel coated cast iron pots when I make soups and stews, so this one was no exception. Can't beat the even temperature and maintaining the proper temperature within the pot. One trick to keep in mind if you are using enamel coated cast iron, never turn the heat over about medium heat. They hold onto heat so well that it would overcook your food.

3. Add a small can of tomato paste and let it saute for about a minute.

4. Add 1 cup of white wine.

5. Add entire box of seafood stock and season with a bay leaf, salt, pepper, and a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. Bring to a simmer, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes to allow all of the flavors to blend.

6. Add mussels and clams and cover until they begin to open, about 5-10 minutes depending on freshness.

7. Add the fish and shrimp, cover and let simmer until just cooked, about another 5 minutes.

8. Remove any mussels and clams that did not open and discard.

9. Adjust seasonings to taste, turn off heat.

10. Plate and enjoy. I like to serve something this hearty into what my husband and I call our pasta plates, they're just deep plates or a shallow bowl. My favorite way to eat this is to remove the meat from all of the shells and add some nice, crusty bread to help soak up that yummy juice.

This stew always reminds us of our old home and we can't get enough of that. Away from the coast was a little shock the first time I had to actually buy some of the seafood. Many times I would just go out into the marshes to catch my own clams and shrimp, but this was still good as long as you trust your grocery store.

Have you ever made Cioppino before? What did you do differently?