One of the highlights of a trip to San Francisco for lots of people is to enjoy fresh seafood at one of the many great restaurants in the city. We live in the Bay Area and I try to get into the city often for date night with my husband who works in San Francisco or to take our girls to meet up with him for lunch sometimes when they aren’t in school. So imagine my chagrin when I was researching iconic foods that came out of California for the American Eats series I have been doing and realized that, despite all the fantastic restaurants I’ve eaten at in the city, I had never tried cioppino! I decided to remedy that double quick. As it turns out, cioppino is easy to make and so delicious! It can be made with almost any combination of seafood in a large soup pot, but whole Dungeness crabs in the shell, clams, shrimp, bay scallops, and mussels are classic options. It’s a great special occasion recipe for the holidays or dinner parties. For more comforting cold-weather soups, be sure to check out our Maryland Crab Soup, Better-Than-Panera Broccoli Cheese Soup, and Tortellini Soup with Italian Sausage.
What is Cioppino?
Almost every seafood restaurant of note in San Francisco has cioppino on its menu. It was created here in the late 1800s by Italian immigrant fishermen from the Genoa region of Italy who lived and worked in the North Beach section of San Francisco by the Bay. The story goes that when fishermen would return from an unsuccessful day of fishing out on the water, they would go around the docks and other fishermen would chip in a little something from the day’s catch to the pot—a crab, some mussels, or a fish. There was an understanding that they too would have days in the future when they would come home empty-handed and need to rely on their fellow fishermen as well. It was a community effort. Cioppino is traditionally made with the freshest seafood possible in a thin broth made from tomatoes, herbs, and white wine. The catch of the day from the San Francisco Bay is usually a combination of Dungeness crab, clams, bay scallops, shrimp, squid, mussels, and fish. Bowls of cioppino are served with plenty of fresh San Francisco sourdough bread that is dipped into the sauce to sop up the rich, flavorful broth.
Why We Love This Recipe
Use your favorite seafood and seasonings, but this recipe has what you need for the most authentic flavors.Made with the freshest fish is the best way to go for the best flavors.Serve this delicious cioppino recipe with glasses of dry white wine for a special dinner party!
What You’ll Need
Scroll down to the recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Granulated Sugar – This thickens the fruit into a sauce and makes it deliciously sweet.Butter – Use salted butter to bring out the flavors when sautéeing the veg. You can use olive oil if you prefer, but I like the buttery flavor.Vegetables – We’ll use sautéed onion and a fennel bulb to give us a great savory taste.Seasoning – Use fresh garlic that you mince yourself, along with fresh parsley, dried basil, kosher salt, dried thyme, dried oregano, red pepper flakes, and bay leaves for a dish that is bursting with flavor!Wine – Use white wine for an added bitter-sweet taste to the hearty stew. This can be replaced with additional fish or chicken stock.Tomatoes – Use crushed tomatoes as well as diced tomatoes for the cioppino base.Stock – Fish or seafood stock will bring the seafood flavors together well. You can use a mixture of chicken stock and clam juice instead if you need.Seafood – Use a mixture of fresh fish: small clams, mussels, a Dungeness crab**, large shrimp, bay scallops, and a cod fillet for this recipe.Garnish – Use fresh basil and fresh parsley to garnish.
How to Make San Francisco Cioppino Seafood Stew
Tips for Success
Buy fresh. Buy the freshest seafood available to you for making San Francisco cioppino. Whole Foods is one of my go-to sources for good seafood, but Asian markets can also be a good, economical source of fresh seafood as well. Depending on where you live, there might also be a good fish market or fishmonger at your local farmer’s market that you could go to for the freshest seafood possible.It’s messy. Fair warning that authentic cioppino is typically served with the crab and other shellfish still in their shells, which means you’re in for some hands-on, messy eating. But I think that’s part of the fun for an informal gathering with friends who appreciate good seafood. Just be sure to have lots of napkins on hand!Stock. If you can’t find fish or seafood stock, you could use chicken stock with a small can of clam juice instead.Wine. Replace the white wine with more stock, if you aren’t comfortable cooking with wine.
Substitutions and Variations
Stock. Replace all or part of the fish or seafood stock with the same amount of chicken stock along with a small bottle of clam juice instead.Dungeness Crab. If Dungeness crab is not available, you could use snow crab, blue claw, stone crab claws, or even Alaskan King crab. Also, you could just use crab meat instead of the legs and body, which would certainly make this cioppino easier to eat, although it is such a fun presentation to have the crab legs.Fennel. If you can’t find fennel bulbs, don’t substitute them for fennel seeds. They are quite different in flavor and substance. The bulb is best substituted for the same amount in celery or bok choy plus a small amount of fennel seeds. For example, for this recipe, 1 fennel bulb will need about ½ lb celery and ½ teaspoon of fennel seeds as a substitution.Turn up the heat. Add some chili pepper to the mix for some added spice.
More Hearty Soup Recipes
Creamy Irish Leek and Potato SoupNew England Fish ChowderZuppa ToscanaSmoked Salmon Chowder with BaconOne Pot Lasagna Soup
More States I Have Visited in my American Eats Series
Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • New Jersey • New York • Oregon • Puerto Rico • South Carolina • South Dakota • Texas • Utah • Wisconsin
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Tortellini Soup with Italian Sausage
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