Christmas Eve tradition – Cioppino, the most efficient way to cover the Feast of the Seven Fishes in an Italian-American-Californian home. I inherited the Christmas Eve family dinner a few years back to offload the full annual holiday meals burden from my mom. I think it’s a pretty good deal because honestly, unlike other holiday meals in our family, Cioppino takes center stage and you really can’t put too much else on the menu (assuming of course that all the guests enjoy seafood).
Note: the amounts are really just a guide. Increase, decrease or swap out fish to your preference. While I’ve made this meal for upwards of 15 people, below is a recipe based on feeding four with ample leftovers. Multiply as needed.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1 large white or yellow onion, sliced thin
- 1 large fresh fennel bulb, sliced thin
- 4 – 5 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- 4 to 6 ounces, tomato paste
- ~2 cups fish stock or clam broth
- 2 – 28 oz crushed tomatoes
- 1/2 bottle dry white wine
- oregano, handful of dried or twice that of fresh
- salt, pepper and hot red pepper flakes to taste
- 2 large Dungeness crab, steamed, cracked and cleaned
- 1 pound white fish filets such as cod, halibut
- 1 pound shell on shrimp
- 1 pound raw calamari, tubes and tentacles
- 1 pound scallops
- 1 – 2 pounds live mussels, cleaned and debearded
- 1 – 2 pounds live clams, cleaned
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large dutch oven or stock pan. Add onions and garlic and saute until limp. Add fennel and continue to saute about 4 minutes. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper.
- Deglaze the browning onion by adding about 1/2 of the wine. Add the small legs of the crab to start the fish stock. Add tomato paste and melt.
- Add the tomatoes, fish stock (or clam broth), and remaining wine – as much as you like. Add oregano and hot pepper. Simmer covered, about 30 minutes.
- Begin to add the fish: add white fish and cook about 5 – 10 minutes until it starts to break up. The white fish is there to thicken the sauce, not really to be identified in the bowl.
- Add crab and stir through. Add shrimp, scallops, and calamari – stir through, cover and allow to come back to a boil. Once the shrimp have turned pink and opaque, taste the sauce and adjust seasonings. Add oregano, salt, pepper and hot pepper flakes to taste.
- Add clams and mussels and stir gently. Cover and allow to open about 3 – 5 minutes. Discard any mussels and clams that don’t open.
- Serve into deep bowls topped with fresh flat-leaf parsley and a side of crusty Italian bread.
