Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Cioppino
San Francisco’s Italian-immigrant seafood stew, crab, clams, and fish in a garlicky tomato-wine broth, eaten with sourdough.
American (Californian) · medium · serves 4
prep 25 min · cook 35 min
~483 cal · 86g protein · 20g carbs · 1g fat · 4g fiber · 10g sugars · 0g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Cioppino is San Francisco's great seafood stew, born in the late 1800s among the Italian immigrant fishermen of the city's North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf. The name likely comes from a Ligurian dialect word, and the dish itself from the day's unsold catch tossed into a communal pot.
It is a generous, rustic stew of whatever the boats brought in, Dungeness crab, clams, mussels, shrimp, and firm fish, simmered in a garlicky broth of tomatoes, wine, and herbs. The crab in the shell is both the glory and the delightful mess of it.
Served with plenty of sourdough bread to soak up the broth (and a bib against the splatter), it is convivial, hands-on food. Cioppino is a delicious monument to San Francisco's immigrant fishing heritage and its Italian-American soul.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally dairy-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
3 lbs assorted mixed seafood (Dungeness crab, clams, mussels, firm fish, shrimp)
28 oz can crushed San Marzano tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 cups clam juice or fish
1 tsp sugar
1 cup dry white wine
1 bulb fennel
1 onion
6 cloves garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 bay
1 tsp oregano
1/4 cup olive oil
a handful parsley
1 lemon
1 loaf sourdough bread, to serve
Instructions
1
Soak the clams and mussels in heavily salted cold water for an hour in the fridge to purge their sand, then scrub them.
✎ Chef’s note
Skipping the purge is what puts grit in the broth, and there is no fixing it later.
2
Soften the fennel, onion, and garlic in olive oil with the pepper flakes, then stir in the tomato paste and cook it out for a minute before adding the wine and reducing by half.
3
Add the tomatoes, bay, oregano, sugar and the clam juice or fish stock, and simmer 20 minutes into a rich broth.
✎ Chef’s note
Clam juice or a quick broth from fish frames instead of plain water is what separates a real cioppino base from tomato sauce with seafood in it, and the spoon of sugar takes the tinned edge off the tomatoes. The base can be made a day ahead; the seafood goes in only at the last minute.
4
Add the seafood in order of cooking time: crab and clams first, then mussels and fish, then shrimp last. (For the plant version, add mushrooms and hearts of palm with the kombu.)
✎ Chef’s note
Staggering the seafood by cook time is essential. Adding it all at once overcooks the delicate shrimp and fish before the clams and mussels open.
5
Cover and simmer just until the shells open and the fish flakes, 6 to 8 minutes, discarding any shells that stay shut.
6
Finish with parsley and lemon, and serve in deep bowls with sourdough for dunking.
San Francisco wharf tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
California (San Francisco). Northern California cooking is arranged around produce and the Mediterranean climate that grows it, plus the sourdough that Gold Rush bakeries made into a local habit. Mexican, Chinese and Italian communities did the rest, which is why a taqueria, a dim sum house and a pasta counter can share a single block.
🗺️
United States. Between 1910 and 1970 some six million Black Americans left the South, and the cooking went north with them. The rib tips and hot links smoked in barrel pits on the South Side of Chicago, and the home cooking that acquired the name soul food around 1964, are both products of that migration rather than of the cities they arrived in.
🌍
North America. North America's table began with Indigenous foodways, the "three sisters" of corn, beans, and squash, plus chiles, tomatoes, and cacao, then layered on colonial, African, and immigrant influences. From Mexico's UNESCO-recognized cuisine to the Cajun and Creole pots of Louisiana and the fiery jerk of the Caribbean, the region turns ancient staples into something new. Barbecue, tacos, gumbo, and mole all carry stories of migration and adaptation.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
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Good to know
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Cioppino?
San Francisco’s Italian-immigrant seafood stew, crab, clams, and fish in a garlicky tomato-wine broth, eaten with sourdough.
Where does Cioppino come from?
Cioppino is a American (Californian) dish from California (San Francisco), United States.
Can Cioppino be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Cioppino recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Cioppino safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Cioppino take to make?
About 60 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 35 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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