Grandma Lees Cioppino Recipes

GRANDMA LEE'S CIOPPINO

Steps:

• In a large stock pot: melt butter, onions (chopped) and garlic over medium heat. Stir until soft.
• Add V-8 juice, bay leaves and Italian seasoning. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. OPT: you may add some white wine
• Add the shrimp, scallops, clams and crab. Bring to a boil and cover and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes until clams open and seafood is done.
• Scoop up and put into large soup bowls and serve with warm, buttered, (garlic), crusty, sourdough bread. Enjoy this soup, have plenty of napkins and bread. The bread sops up the juices. This is a versatile soup. Leave the shells on the shrimp so you have to work at it to enjoy. You can use as much or as less seafood of your choice and use just enough V-8 to cover the seafood. You also can add chunks of fish (your choice).If you have shrimp eaters you may want to add a little more shrimp, because they will pick out all the shrimp and leave the rest. Those lucky to live by the coast can invite me over!

CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a very large pot over medium heat. Add the fennel, onion, shallots, and salt and saute until the onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and 3/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, and saute 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste. Add tomatoes with their juices, wine, fish stock and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until the flavors blend, about 30 minutes.
• Add the clams and mussels to the cooking liquid. Cover and cook until the clams and mussels begin to open, about 5 minutes. Add the shrimp and fish. Simmer gently until the fish and shrimp are just cooked through, and the clams are completely open, stirring gently, about 5 minutes longer (discard any clams and mussels that do not open). Season the soup, to taste, with more salt and red pepper flakes.
• Ladle the soup into bowls and serve.

CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the anchovies, bay leaf and red pepper flakes and cook until the anchovies begin to dissolve, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, onions and some salt and pepper. Saute until the onions are translucent, 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and parsley and use a wooden spoon to crush the tomatoes into bite-size pieces. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes to blend the flavors.
• Season the fish fillets and scallops with salt and pepper. Raise the heat under the skillet to medium. Add the mussels and clams and gently stir to combine. Cover and cook 4 to 5 minutes. Add the fish, shrimp and scallops and gently stir to combine. Cover and cook until the seafood is cooked and the shellfish are open, an additional 4 to 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and serve immediately.

GRANDFATHER'S CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Heat oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, celery, parsley and garlic; sauté until tender, about 8 minutes. Add crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes with their juices; simmer 10 minutes. Add red wine, red wine vinegar, canned clams with juices, rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay leaf, crushed red pepper, allspice and cinnamon. Simmer 30 minutes.
• Add water, white wine and cherrystone clams to stew. Simmer until clams open, about 10 minutes (discard any clams that do not open). Add crabmeat, sea bass and shrimp and simmer until fish and shrimp are cooked through, about 5 minutes. Ladle into large bowls and serve.

BOBBY FLAY'S CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook until fragrant, 1 minute. Add the wine and cook until reduced by half. Add the fish stock, drained tomatoes, bay leaf, and thyme sprigs. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
• While the broth is cooking, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in large sauté pan over high heat. Season the bass on both sides with salt and pepper, and cook until golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Remove to a plate.
• Add the remaining 2 tablespoons oil to the same pan. Season the shrimp and sauté until light golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Remove to the plate with the bass.
• Add the clams and mussels to the thickened broth and cook until they open (discarding any that do not), about 3 minutes. Add the bass and shrimp, and cook just to heat through, about 1 minute. Stir in the parsley and tarragon, and season with the honey, hot sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Remove the bay leaf.
• To serve, place a crouton in each of 4 to 6 bowls, ladle some of the cioppino on top, and top with the remaining croutons. Garnish with parsley leaves, if desired.
• Preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat, or preheat your broiler.
• Combine the butter and anchovies in a food processor, and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper, and scrape into a bowl.
• Brush one side of the bread with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Grill, oil side down (or broil, oil side up), until light golden brown. Turn over and continue grilling until light golden brown on both sides.
• Remove the bread to a platter, and spread some of the butter mixture on the seasoned side. Cut each slice in half crosswise, to make 16 croutons.

CIOPPINO

Steps:

• Toast the star anise by stirring frequently in a small skillet over medium heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Set aside.
• Make the marinara base: Add the onion, garlic cloves, bell pepper and olive oil to a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. (Or, finely chop the vegetables by hand, then add to the pot along with the oil.) Add the mixture to a large pot and cook over medium, stirring occasionally, until soft, translucent and light golden in places, about 5 minutes. Add the Bloody Mary mix, canned tomatoes and juices and tomato sauce. Get every last drop from the cans by swirling a splash of water into each one and tipping the remnants into the pot. Add the toasted star anise, oregano, basil, thyme, sugar and bay leaf, and stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium-high, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer gently, uncovered, for 1 hour, stirring often so the bottom of the pot doesn't burn. (Makes 7 1/2 cups; see Tip.)
• While sauce simmers, roast the garlic: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Slice the whole garlic heads in half crosswise. Divide garlic, cut-sides up, between two pieces of aluminum foil, large enough to wrap the garlic up like two presents. Drizzle with olive oil, then wrap tightly. Set the foil packets on a baking sheet and roast for 1 hour, until the garlic is light brown and tender all the way through.
• Make the garlic butter: Once cool enough to handle, squeeze the garlic cloves out, discarding the skins. (You should have about 1 cup of roasted garlic.) Add to a food processor along with the softened butter and pulse until smooth and creamy. Or, smash the garlic to a paste and mix with the softened butter. (Makes 1 1/2 cups; see Tip.)
• Make the garlic bread: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Spread 1/2 cup garlic butter on the cut sides of bread and season with salt and pepper. Set the bread, buttered-sides up on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake until toasted and golden in spots, about 15 minutes. As soon as the garlic bread comes out of the oven, sprinkle it with dried oregano and the Parmesan. Cut into large pieces, then wrap the foil from the baking sheet around them to keep warm.
• While the bread bakes, make the cioppino: In a large Dutch oven or wide, heavy pot, add 4 cups of the marinara sauce, plus the clam juice, thyme sprigs and red-pepper flakes. Season generously with salt and pepper and heat over medium-high until simmering, about 5 minutes.
• Separate the legs and claws from the crab bodies. Once the sauce is simmering, gradually add the seafood, starting with the crab bodies. Cook for a couple minutes, then add the crab legs and claws to the pot and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
• Add the clams, nestling them into the sauce around the edges, like numbers on a clock, cover with a lid and cook for about 6 minutes. Give the mixture a stir then add the mussels, in the same fashion as the clams. Cover and cook for another 3 minutes. Once the clams start to open, add the fish, gently nestling it into the sauce, and set the shrimp right on top to let them steam gently. Add 2 tablespoons of the garlic butter, put the lid back on and simmer until the fish cooks through and the shrimp get plump, about 5 minutes.
• To serve, transfer the cioppino to a deep serving bowl, being careful not to break up the delicate cooked fish. Perch the crab legs and claws on top and sprinkle with parsley. Serve with warm garlic bread on the side.