Tonight let’s make the best cioppino ever! You can’t decide what seafood to make…Cioppino is the perfect dish to make. Cioppino is basically a fish stew made up of any fresh seafood you can find at your market.

The Best Cioppino Recipe

Recipe by David Frank – Spending Time In My Kitchen

0.0 from 0 votes

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

hour

Ingredients

Veggies
1 Fennel bulb, minced (Save fennel fronds for garnish)
1 Leek cut lengthwise, then crosswise
2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1 Large Shallot, sliced thin
1/4 Cup Celery, diced finely (Use the young celery leaves if available)
Some chopped parsley for garnish (optional)
Other Ingredients
2 Cups White wine (separate 1/2 cup)
4 Cups Lobster / Clam juice
28 Oz San Marzano Tomatoes, crushed
2 Tbl Butter
1 Tbl Oil
Spices
2 tsp Oregano, fresh
2 Sprigs Thyme
2 Bay leaf
White pepper and salt to taste
Red chili flakes, to taste
Seafood
1 lb Peeled and deveined shrimp, 15 count
1/2 lb Scallops
1/2 lb Clams
1 lb Cod, cut into large bite-sized chunks
8 oz Crab (You can get Blue Crab at one of the Big Warehouses)

Directions

Cut and prepare all your veggies.
Add oil and butter to a dutch oven and set heat to medium, medium-low. Add chopped fennel, leeks, garlic, shallots, celery to the pan. Add a couple of pinches of salt. Add a pinch of white pepper. Cook until translucent (approximately 10 minutes.) Use a wooden spoon to stir halfway through to make sure veggies are not sticking.
Add wine and clam juice to the pan. Turn heat to high. Reduce to 1/2. Make sure you scrape the bottom of the pan to make sure you release any brown bits that may be sticking to the pan.
Add tomatoes to your dutch oven and reduce heat to a low simmer. Add oregano, thyme, bay leaves, white pepper, salt, red pepper flakes to taste. Let the sauce cook for 30 minutes.
Cook shrimp and scallops so they are about 75% cooked. Add 1 Tbl of butter and 1 Tbl of oil to a 14 ” saute pan. Set heat to medium. Add peeled and deveined shrimp to your pan. Cook only till you get a little color to your shrimp. The shrimp will continue to cook when placed in the dutch oven with the broth. After cooked, pull shrimps off the heat, place them into a bowl, and set them aside.
Repeat the same process in step 5 with the scallops. Cook until 75% done, and then set them aside.
Add a !/2 cup of wine to your empty pan and deglaze to release any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Add clams to the pan. Place a cover on the pan and cook only until they all open up. Set clams aside. If a clam does not open up, throw it away. It is probably bad.
After the broth has been cooked for 30 minutes, add all the seafood except for the cod to the dutch oven. Stir gently to make sure all the seafood is at least partially covered by the broth. Place cod in the broth. Make sure the cod is at least partially covered by the broth. Cover the dutch oven and cook for an additional 5 minutes, or until fish is cooked.
Time to serve the cioppino! Ladle some of the broth to the bottom of your serving plate. Add seafood. Top off with chopped parsley and fennel fronds.
Hopefully, you toasted some garlic bread to sop up some of that wonderful broth.
Enjoy!!

Notes

Remember, cioppino is a fish stew. So use the type of seafood you enjoy. Use the freshest you can find! A lot of people like mussels. I could not find any near me. I had a can of prime lump crab that I decided to use. Make this recipe special for you!