Cioppino Sauce
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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Cioppino Sauce
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 |
| 4servings |
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Ingredients
- .5cup olive oil
- 2 small onions — halved and sliced thin.
- 6cloves garlic — sliced thin or chopped
- .5cup fennel — sliced thin (reserve any good looking fronds for garnish in the final presentation)
- .5cup shallots — sliced thin
- 3 bay leaves
- .5cup chopped parsley
- .25cup chopped sweet basil
- 28oz canned whole peeled tomatoes — crushed by hand. I’m fond of the “Red Gold” brand.
- 28oz canned tomato puree
- 3cups shellfish stock — Or clam juice.
- 1/2 cupto taste dry white wine
- 1Tbsp Brown sugar
- 1Tbsp celery salt
- 1Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- to taste black pepper
- to taste crushed red pepper
- .5tsp cinnamon
- to taste salt — careful!
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, stock or clam juice, brown sugar, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper, red peppers, and cinnamon.
- Bring to boil,
- reduce heat to low-medium and simmer uncovered for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until thickened.
- Salt to taste.
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.