Recipe: Cioppino

A few years ago while I was in San Francisco, I tried cioppino for the first time.  It was amazing!  I was on a tomato kick at that time and anything with a tomato base or note had me hooked.  Naturally, I had to recreate the dish at home, but I had some willing guinea pigs to help me devour the entire lot!

Equipment
Stock pot or dutch oven

Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
1 onion, chopped
5-6 garlic cloves
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 - 28oz can of diced tomatoes
8 cups shrimp stock (thank you Insatiably Epicurious for this)
1 cup dry white wine
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 lb of shrimp
1 lb of scallops
1 lb of green mussels
1 lb of manila clams
1 lb of firm-fleshed fish fillets (sea bass, halibut, salmon) cut into 2 inch chunks
Lemon zest
Chopped parsley

Directions
1. In a large stock pot or dutch oven, heat the olive oil over a medium heat.  Add the chopped shallot, onion, and fish sauce.  Saute until

2.  Add the garlic and red pepper flakes.  Saute for about a minute.

3. Add the tomato paste and stir until it is evenly coated over the shallot, onion, and garlic.

4.  Add the can of diced tomatoes, including its juices.  Stir for about a minute

5.  Add the wine, shrimp stock, and bay leaves.   Cover and simmer for 40 minutes.

6. Add the clams and mussels.  Cover and cook about 5 minutes until the clams and mussels begin to open.

7.  Add the shrimp and fish and simmer for another 5 minutes.  At this point, discard any clams and mussels that did not open.

8.  Season the soup to taste using fish sauce and or red pepper flakes.

9.  Garnish with lemon zest and chopped parsley.

Bon appetit!