This is the base for cioppino, a shellfish stew invented by San Francisco's Italian fishing community in the late 1800's.
It isn't that much trouble to make a double batch, and it keeps forever in the freezer. ~ 2 cups/serving so ~4 cups for dinner for two. Real convenient for the next time you start Jonesin' for cioppino.
One other thing, save and freeze shells after any shellfish feast. Like crab, shrimp, lobster or even crawfish. Use them to make a batch of stock. This bumps cioppino up from excellent to magical.
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servings
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Ingredients
- .5 cup olive oil
- 2 small onions — halved and sliced thin.
- 6 cloves garlic — sliced thin or chopped
- .5 cup fennel — sliced thin (reserve any good looking fronds for garnish in the final presentation)
- .5 cup shallots — sliced thin
- 3 bay leaves
- .5 cup chopped parsley
- .25 cup chopped sweet basil
- 28 oz canned whole peeled tomatoes — crushed by hand. I'm fond of the "Red Gold" brand.
- 28 oz canned tomato puree
- 3 cups shellfish stock — Or substitute clam juice.
- 1/2 cup to taste dry white wine
- 1 Tbsp Brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp celery salt
- 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- to taste black pepper
- to taste crushed red pepper
- .5 tsp cinnamon
- to taste salt — careful!
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and sauté until translucent.
- Add garlic, bay leaves, parsley and basil and cook, stirring, just to warm the garlic—do not let it brown.
- Stir in the crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, water, clam base, brown sugar, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, black and red peppers, cinnamon and salt to taste.
- Bring to boil,
- reduce heat to low-medium and simmer uncovered for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened.
Recipe Notes
R&D: ¼ cup tomato paste (drop puree, total 5 cups stock), 1 ½ cups dry white wine. Test some heat. Consider testing adding some pureed anchovy.
View online at KillerNoms.com/cioppinosauce
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