Melba's Jammin' wrote:
> Big Question: The base sauce tasted to me like a spicy marinara-type
> pasta sauce. What would be so wrong with starting with some bottled
> marinara and thinning it with broth and red wine? Would I be drummed
> from the corps? I'm not sure I want to make the marinara sauce from
> scratch (I know, it's not a big deal, but I don't feel like it next
> time, OK?).
> So whaddaya think about my bottled sauce idea?
Nobody is going to drum you out of anything. This is right in the
tradition. (But, sometime, you should try it from scratch and use
fresh tomatoes. It'll be a treat.) Cioppino comes from the word
ciuppin which is Genoese dialect for the local fish stew. It was
brought to San Francisco by immigrants from Genoa who were well
represented in the fresh seafood business. It caught on and spread
well beyond the Italian community and into restaurants and California
families. It's still common for volunteer fire departments, service
clubs, etc. to host cioppino feeds during Dungeness crab season. Just
like "chili", cioppino has spawned myriad and often highly esoteric
recipes. Much of which is essentially seafood cooked in tomato based
spaghetti sauce. So, of course, when bottled sauces became popular,
cioppino was a natural use. Any way this is an opportunity to post a
coupls recs.
I hate to chauvinistic, (yeah, right!) but here's a recipe from a
distant cousin,
Ernie Aviani, who had the Neptune FishGrotto which was at the Wharf on
Taylor St. before moving out on Irving in the Sunset. Ernie, like my
father, came from the islandof Brac off the Dalmatian coast. This
version of ciuppino is very similar to the "brodet" of that region.
Ernie Aviani's Ciuppino
1 onion
1 glass red wine vinegar
1 small clove garlic, chopped
salt and pepper
clams, hard shell or little neck
prawns
parsley, chopped
olive oil
celery salt
sea bass slices or other white fish
1 can solid pack tomatoes
crab
paprika
1 glass sherry wine
Slice onion and garlic and brown in olive oil. When brown, add one
glass red wine vinegar. Simmer a moment and then add clams and prawns,
all of which must be fresh. Break crab into pieces and place in pot
with
clams and prawns. Saute slowly for 10 minutes. Add slices of white
fish and continue to cook. Add can of tomatoes, salt, pepper, celery
salt, and paprika. Add sherry wine and cook until fish is done.
This will take about 20 minutes.
(From Eating Around San Francisco by Ruth Thompson and Louis
Hanges; Suttonhouse Ltd.; S.F., L.A. and N.Y., 1937.)
Here's another with better directions. I can't remember where I got
this so if any body recognizes this, please give proper credit.
Cioppino
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 stick celery, finely chopped
3/4 cup onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
1 cup fish or clam broth
1 to 1 &1/2 lb chopped, peeled, de-seeded tomatoes
6 oz. white wine or dry sherry
3 or 4 basil leaves
1 pinch of cayenne
1 dozen clams or cockles
1 dozen mussels
1 fresh Dungeness crab
1 lb. large shrimp
1 & 1/2 lb. red snapper, sea bass or other firm fleshed fish
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil in your cooking pot, add the carrot and celery and soften.
Add the onion and soften, then add the garlic and parsley and cook for
a
minute. Add broth, wine, tomatoes, basil and cayenne. Bring to a simmer
and add the cockles and mussels and continue to simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the crab, which has been pulled apart and cracked, and the shrimp
and simmer for 10 more minutes. Add the fish and simmer for 10 more
minutes, add salt and pepper as desired, then serve. Accompany with
crusty French or Italian bread and a light to medium bodied red wine.
This combination of fish/seafood is common in the San Francisco area.
Other combinations can work equally well, particularly if you stick to
the part-shellfish/part-fish mix. If you use squid, add it at the last
minute and only cook it long enough to firm up. This is a very sloppy
dish to consume; if you have bibs, use them.
D.M.
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