Photo by Judith Hausman
My family and I all fell in love with cioppino during a recent family trip to Northern California. A recent blustery, rainy night back home on the East Coast reminded me of this rough and hardy, red wine and tomato-based fish stew.
Home-canned or local seasonal tomatoes and homemade fish stock (or a quart from your local fishmonger, at least) are ideal, but at the end of a long week, I used a big can of roasted, diced tomatoes and a box of fish stock. A dash of smoked paprika would add the same depth to a can of your usual diced tomatoes and you might try a bottle of clam juice instead of the box. Taste before seasoning if you choose the already-salty clam juice. If you use a food processor to chop the vegetables all together, the prep is even faster.
We used tilefish but haddock, hake or even monkfish would have been better. Just use a firm, mild fish (no salmon) that won’t flake to nothing before the shellfish cook and open. Clams take a tiny bit longer than the mussels do, so you might put them in first, followed by the mussels. Remember to discard any sketchy shellfish that doesn’t open in cooking. Serve the soup-stew with country bread to sop up the broth, and make sure to provide your guests with a fork, as well as a spoon, to get the bivalves out of their shells.
Servings: four INGREDIENTS
Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot. Cook the chopped vegetables covered and over low heat to soften for 8 to 10 minutes. Add herbs, tomatoes, water, wine and stock.
Simmer for another 15 minutes. Season to taste. Add the shellfish and fish chunks.
Judith Hausman
As a long-time freelance food
writer, Judith Hausman has written about every aspect of food, but local
producers and artisanal traditions remain closest to her heart. Eating close to
home takes this seasonal eater through a journey of delights and dilemmas, one
tiny deck garden, farmers’ market discovery and easy-as-pie recipe at a
time. She writes from a still-bucolic but ever-more-suburban town in
the New York City ‘burbs.
