Cioppino is a
fish stewFish stew is a generic name for a stew with a base or food ingredients of fish or seafood.Types of fish stew from around the world include:*Asam fish *Bouillabaisse...
derived from the various regional fish
soupSoup is a food that is made by combining ingredients, such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth....
s and stews of
Italian cuisineItalian cuisine as a national cuisine known today has evolved through centuries of social and political changes, with its roots traced back to 4th century BC...
. Cioppino is traditionally made from the catch of the day, which in the dish's place of origin is typically a combination of
dungeness crabThe Dungeness Crab is a species of crab that inhabits West Coast eelgrass beds and water bottoms all the way from Alaska's Aleutian Islands down to Santa Cruz, California. They are named after Dungeness, Washington, which is located approximately five miles north of Sequim and 15 miles east of...
, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and fish with fresh tomatoes in a wine sauce, often served over
spaghettiSpaghetti is a long, thin, cylindrical pasta of Italian origin. A variety of pasta dishes are based on it, from spaghetti with cheese and pepper or garlic and oil to a spaghetti with tomato, meat, and other sauces...
or other long
pastaPasta is a generic term for foods made from an unleavened dough of flour and water, and sometimes a combination of egg and flour. Pastas include noodles in various lengths, widths and shapes, and varieties that are filled with other ingredients like ravioli and tortellini...
and toasted buttered bread, either
sourdoughSourdough is a dough containing a lactobacillus culture, usually in symbiotic combination with yeasts. It is one of two principal means of leavening in bread baking, along with the use of cultivated forms of yeast . It is of particular importance in baking rye-based breads, where yeast does not...
or
baguetteA baguette is a specific shape of bread, commonly made from basic lean dough, a simple guideline set down by French law, distinguishable by its length, very crisp crust, and slits cut into it to enable proper expansion of gasses and thus formation of the crumb, the inner soft part of bread...
. The dish is comparable to
bouillabaisseBouillabaisse is a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of Marseille. The French and English form bouillabaisse comes from the Provençal Occitan word bolhabaissa , a compound that consists of the two verbs bolhir and abaissar .Bouillabaisse is a fish soup containing...
, burrida, and bourride of the
French ProvenceFrench cuisine is a style of cooking derived from the nation of France. It evolved from centuries of social and political change. The Middle Ages brought Guillaume Tirel, better known as Taillevent...
, suquet de peix from Catalan speaking regions of coastal Spain, and to
cacciuccoCacciucco pronounced /katʃuk:o/ is an Italian fish stew consisting of several different types of fish and shellfish cooked in wine, tomatoes, and chili pepper. Similar fish stews are popular all the way up and down the Tyrrhenian Sea, but Cacciucco is specific to the port city of Livorno....
and brodetto from
ItalyItalian cuisine as a national cuisine known today has evolved through centuries of social and political changes, with its roots traced back to 4th century BC...
.
It was developed in the late 1800s by Italian fishermen who settled in the
North BeachNorth Beach may refer to a number of places in the world:United States*North Beach, San Francisco, California*North Beach, Florida, a census-designated place in Indian River County...
section of San Francisco.
Cioppino is a
fish stewFish stew is a generic name for a stew with a base or food ingredients of fish or seafood.Types of fish stew from around the world include:*Asam fish *Bouillabaisse...
derived from the various regional fish
soupSoup is a food that is made by combining ingredients, such as meat and vegetables with stock, juice, water or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth....
s and stews of
Italian cuisineItalian cuisine as a national cuisine known today has evolved through centuries of social and political changes, with its roots traced back to 4th century BC...
. Cioppino is traditionally made from the catch of the day, which in the dish's place of origin is typically a combination of
dungeness crabThe Dungeness Crab is a species of crab that inhabits West Coast eelgrass beds and water bottoms all the way from Alaska's Aleutian Islands down to Santa Cruz, California. They are named after Dungeness, Washington, which is located approximately five miles north of Sequim and 15 miles east of...
, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and fish with fresh tomatoes in a wine sauce, often served over
spaghettiSpaghetti is a long, thin, cylindrical pasta of Italian origin. A variety of pasta dishes are based on it, from spaghetti with cheese and pepper or garlic and oil to a spaghetti with tomato, meat, and other sauces...
or other long
pastaPasta is a generic term for foods made from an unleavened dough of flour and water, and sometimes a combination of egg and flour. Pastas include noodles in various lengths, widths and shapes, and varieties that are filled with other ingredients like ravioli and tortellini...
and toasted buttered bread, either
sourdoughSourdough is a dough containing a lactobacillus culture, usually in symbiotic combination with yeasts. It is one of two principal means of leavening in bread baking, along with the use of cultivated forms of yeast . It is of particular importance in baking rye-based breads, where yeast does not...
or
baguetteA baguette is a specific shape of bread, commonly made from basic lean dough, a simple guideline set down by French law, distinguishable by its length, very crisp crust, and slits cut into it to enable proper expansion of gasses and thus formation of the crumb, the inner soft part of bread...
. The dish is comparable to
bouillabaisseBouillabaisse is a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of Marseille. The French and English form bouillabaisse comes from the Provençal Occitan word bolhabaissa , a compound that consists of the two verbs bolhir and abaissar .Bouillabaisse is a fish soup containing...
, burrida, and bourride of the
French ProvenceFrench cuisine is a style of cooking derived from the nation of France. It evolved from centuries of social and political change. The Middle Ages brought Guillaume Tirel, better known as Taillevent...
, suquet de peix from Catalan speaking regions of coastal Spain, and to
cacciuccoCacciucco pronounced /katʃuk:o/ is an Italian fish stew consisting of several different types of fish and shellfish cooked in wine, tomatoes, and chili pepper. Similar fish stews are popular all the way up and down the Tyrrhenian Sea, but Cacciucco is specific to the port city of Livorno....
and brodetto from
ItalyItalian cuisine as a national cuisine known today has evolved through centuries of social and political changes, with its roots traced back to 4th century BC...
.
History
It was developed in the late 1800s by Italian fishermen who settled in the
North BeachNorth Beach may refer to a number of places in the world:United States*North Beach, San Francisco, California*North Beach, Florida, a census-designated place in Indian River County...
section of San Francisco. Originally it was made on the boats while out at sea and later became a staple as Italian restaurants proliferated in San Francisco. The name comes from ciuppin, a word in the
Ligurian dialectLigurian is a Gallo-Romance language, currently spoken in Liguria, northern Italy, and parts of the Mediterranean coastal zone of France, and Monaco...
of the port city of
GenoaGenoa is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria. The city has a population of about 610,000 and the urban area has a population of about 900,000...
, meaning "to chop" or "chopped" which described the process of making the stew by chopping up various leftovers of the days catch. At least one restaurant in San Francisco, the eponymous Cioppino's, describesan apocryphal story in which the name derived from the heavily Italian-accented cry of the wharf cooks for the fishermen to "chip in" some of their catch to the collective soup pot.
Preparation
Generally the seafood is cooked in broth and served in the shell, including the crab (if any) that is often served halved or quartered. It therefore requires special utensils, typically a
crab forkA Crab fork is a very small fork for extracting flesh from a crab or lobster. Crab forks may be special-purpose food utensils decorated or constructed specifically for crabs and lobsters, or may simply be very small forks sold or used for the purpose....
and
crackerA Crab cracker is a specialized food utensil, similar in construction and sometimes appearance to certain types of nutcrackers, used to crack the hard shells of crabs and lobsters so as to access the flesh inside, while preparing or eating them....
. Depending on the restaurant, it may be accompanied by a bib to prevent food stains on clothing, which is also sometimes encouraged by restaurants for patrons to use as a sign to attract attention to the restaurant's food, second possibly damp napkin, or a second bowl for the shells. As a variation, the "lazy man's" cioppino is served with seafood shelled and crab legs cracked.