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–+ servings
A soup pot and two bowls filled with seafood and a side of garlic butter toast.

Cioppino (Fisherman’s Stew)

It has many of the usual suspects found in a Cioppino: onions, shallots, fennel, fennel seeds, garlic, red pepper flakes, s&p, tomato paste, white wine, diced tomatoes, bay leaf, wild shrimp, clams, squid… but what took this over the top (for my humble taste buds) was the homemade lobster stock I pulled from the freezer!
The last time I boiled lobster, I added the shells back to the pot with corn cobs, veggies and herbs and made a big pot of intensely flavourful stock. I wasn’t sure how I’d use it, but now I think the other portion still frozen, is destined to end up in another pot of Cioppino!
5 from 2 votes
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Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 55 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Course Main Course, Soup
Cuisine Italian
Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 fennel bulb thinly sliced
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 3 large shallots chopped
  • ½ cup finely chopped celery
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes
  • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 ½ cups dry white wine
  • 1 can diced tomatoes in juice (28-ounce )
  • 6 cups fish stock homemade or store bought
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 corn on the cob – kernels removed reserve cob for broth (or 1 cup frozen corn)
  • 1½ pounds littlenecks clams scrubbed and soaked in cold water for 20 minutes
  • 1 pound uncooked large wild shrimp peeled and deveined
  • ¾ - 1 pound cleaned squid bodies sliced into ½-inch rings, tentacles halved lengthwise if large
  • Fresh tarragon leaves for serving

Instructions
 

  • Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat.
  • Add the fennel, onion, shallots, celery, fennel seeds and salt, sauté until the onion is translucent, about 8-10 minutes.
  • Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, sauté 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, stir to combine, and cook for 1 minute. Add wine and cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes with their juices, fish stock and bay leaf.
  • Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer until the flavours blend, about 30 minutes.
  • Add the corn and the clams to the pot. Cover and cook until the clams just begin to open, about 5 minutes. Add the shrimp and squid. Simmer gently until the shrimp & squid are just cooked through, and the clams are completely open, about 5 minutes more (discard any clams that do not open).
  • Season the soup, to taste, with more salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.
  • Ladle the soup into bowls, sprinkle with tarragon leaves and serve with fresh bread or toast.

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Video

Notes

Switch it up!
  1. Cioppino with clams, wild Argentinian shrimp, fillet of sole, lobster and rock lobster tails. Watch the video here.
  2. Make it with mussels instead of clams.
  3. Add linguine and mussels. Watch the video here.
Tip
  • What takes this dish from good-to-great is the quality, flavour & intensity of the fish stock. So next time you make lobster, shrimp, shellfish, keep the shells and take the time to reduce down the flavours of the shells, with veggies, cob of corn & herbs, then freeze it for the tastiest Cioppino ever!
Keyword cioppino fish stew, cioppino seafood stew recipe, fish stew recipe italian, italian cioppino, italian seafood stew recipe
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