Cioppino
Italian-American seafood stew
Fish, mussels and shrimp cook in a tomato-and-wine broth, making a San Francisco seafood stew to serve with bread.
A San Francisco seafood potA seafood pot,
a San Francisco table.
Cioppino is a San Francisco seafood stew associated with the city’s Italian-American cooking. A tomato-and-wine broth holds a changing mixture of fish and shellfish. Each type is added according to its cooking time, so the fish stays in pieces and the shellfish opens just before serving.
It shares the idea of a mixed seafood pot with several Italian coastal dishes, but it is not presented here as a specialty of an Italian region. This home version uses white fish, mussels and shrimp, with bread for the broth. Crab and other shellfish appear in other versions.
Explore by food: Fish & seafood · Soups
Let’s make cioppino.
A home seafood stew with mussels, white fish and shrimp.
Four main-course bowls.
What you’ll need
- 3 tbspolive oil
- 150 gonion, finely chopped
- 100 gcelery, finely chopped
- 3garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 tbsptomato paste
- 150 mldry white wine
- 600 gchopped canned tomatoes
- 500 mlready-made low-salt fish stock
- 1bay leaf
- ¼ tspchili flakes
- 500 glive mussels, scrubbed and debearded
- 400 gfirm white fish fillets, cut into 4 cm pieces
- 300 graw peeled shrimp
- 2 tbspchopped parsley
- ½ tspfine salt, or to taste
- ¼ tspblack pepper
- 200 gcrusty bread, for serving
Keep the broth at a gentle simmer once the fish is added so it stays in pieces. This version contains no crab; do not assume every shellfish version has the same cooking time.
How to make it
- 01
Prepare the seafood
Keep seafood chilled while preparing the broth. Discard broken mussels and any open ones that do not close when tapped. Check fish for bones.
- 02
Build the broth
Heat oil in a large lidded pot. Soften onion and celery for 8 minutes; add garlic and tomato paste for 1 minute. Add wine and simmer for 2 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, stock, bay, chili, salt and pepper and simmer for 20 minutes.
- 03
Add mussels and fish
Add mussels and fish, cover and simmer gently for 4 minutes. Add shrimp and cook for another 3–4 minutes until the mussels have opened, the shrimp is opaque and the fish reaches 63°C/145°F and flakes easily.
- 04
Check and serve
Discard mussels that remain closed and remove the bay leaf. Taste the broth, stir in parsley and serve in bowls with bread.
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