Cioppino

This recipe was originally created upon coming across the 2.5 lb frozen bags of “Premium Seafood Medley” at Costco, and thinking “this would be great for making cioppino!”. My mother-in-law sent me a link to this Quick and Easy Cioppino recipe, and we just subbed the meat out for the seafood medley to delicious results. Since then, we’ve added more vegetables and modified the seasonings slightly to make it a more complete meal.

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 2 Fennel Bulbs
  • 2 Large Zucchini
  • 1 Medium Onion
  • 6 Cloves Garlic
  • 1 tsp Olive Oil
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 2 tsp Ground Thyme
  • 1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1.5 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
  • 1 28 oz can Crushed Tomatoes in Puree
  • 1.5 cups Water
  • 1 cup full-bodied red wine (Yellow Tail Big Bold Red is both tasty AND cost effective)
  • 1 8 oz bottle Clam Juice
  • 1 2.5 lb bag of frozen Premium Seafood Medley from Costco

Instructions

  1. Chop the onion, mince the garlic, and cut the fennel and zucchini into bite-sized pieces.
  2. Heat 1 tsp olive oil in the 6 L Dutch Oven pot over Medium-High heat until water flicked into the oil crackles.
  3. Add the onion, garlic, zucchini and fennel to the pot, as well as 2 bay leaves, 2 tsp ground thyme, 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, 1.5 tsp of salt, and 1/2 tsp ground black pepper, and mix everything together.
  4. Cover and cook over medium heat until vegetables begin to soften (about 4 minutes), stirring once or twice.
  5. Add the can of crushed tomatoes (including the liquid), 1.5 cups of water, 1 cup of wine, and the clam juice.
  6. Cover the pot and bring it to a boil.
  7. Simmer for 20 minutes, covered.
  8. Remove the lid and pour the Seafood Medley into the pot. Use High heat to bring the pot back up to temperature. The seafood is probably done before the broth begins to boil again, so watch carefully to make sure you don’t overcook it. See here for some discussion on how to tell when a shrimp is cooked. That is typically the gauge we use for whether the seafood is done (as well as maybe testing a scallop). The calamari is pretty thin in comparison, so should be done when the shrimp and scallops are.

Notes

  • The quantity of red pepper flakes has definitely crept up over time from the original recipe. My wife (who is more sensitive to spiciness) says she doesn’t notice it still, but I feel like it does have a little bit of kick that blends well with the rest of the flavors. If you’re at all concerned about spice, dial it back.
  • On a recent variation attempt on this recipe, for the first time ever the broth tasted slightly sour. It was still good, but we definitely prefer the previous recipe. We had two thoughts on where the modifications could have gone wrong (perhaps working in tandem):
    • We weren’t using the Costco seafood medley, and had no mussels, which we suspect reduced the overall richness of the broth.
    • We were using a brand of crushed tomatoes other than our usual (we usually use the Safeway store brand). Apparently there is huge potential for variation in sourness of crushed tomatoes both between brands AND between batches of the same brand. So perhaps we had an especially sour can of tomatoes, and without the mussels to cover it up this was especially apparent in the final result.