• About The Dagger
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

The Dagger - Local News with an Edge

  • Local
  • Politics
  • Schools
  • Sirens
  • Health/Food
  • A&E
  • Sports
You are here: Home / Food / Everything from Soup to Nuts: Wow Your Friends with Cioppino this Valentine’s Day

Everything from Soup to Nuts: Wow Your Friends with Cioppino this Valentine’s Day

February 12, 2012 By Jennifer Williams 6 Comments

Every year I have a Valentine’s Day party for my girlfriends. We play board games, I give them silly little gifts, we eat great food (in my opinion!), gossip, and inevitably drink too much wine. We’ve done this so many times we even had a photo book printed themed for photos with your best friends. It was quite a nice experience having it around as we browse through all the memories of the past years spending the day together. After pouring through my cookbooks, I was at a loss as to what to wow them with this year. So I e-mailed my friend Jane for advice. Her immediate response was “Cioppino!”

If any of you are scratching your heads saying “what’s Cioppino?,” here is the definition from Wikipedia – Cioppino is a fish stew originating in San Francisco. It is considered an Italian-American dish, and is related to various regional fish soups and stews of Italian cuisine. Cioppino is traditionally made from the catch of the day, which in the dish’s place of origin is typically a combination of Dungeness crab, clams, shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and fish. The seafood is then combined with fresh tomatoes in a wine sauce, and served with toasted bread, either sourdough or baguette. San Francisco and I had a passionate love affair a few years ago, so I decided that this would be a fantastic entrée to share with the girls.

If you Google “Cioppino recipe”, there are approximately 362,000 hits. What’s a foodie to do? Create your own signature recipe, that’s what! This dish would also work great if you want to just stay at home and cook for your sweetheart. I personally dislike going to restaurants to celebrate holidays – they are generally crowded, overpriced and not as intimate as a special meal at home. Hope you enjoy!

VALENTINE’S DAY CIOPPINO

1/3 cup olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 fennel bulb, chopped
1 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons minced fresh garlic
2 cups canned crushed tomatoes
28 ounce can diced tomatoes
2 cups dry wine, red or white, separated
2 6.5 ounce cans of chopped clams with their juices
1 teaspoon dried rosemary or 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (chopped)
1 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano, or 1 tablespoon fresh oregano
2 bay leaves
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper (or more to taste)
Pinch of allspice (optional)
Pinch of cinnamon (optional)
2 cups water
1 cup wine
1 dozen cherrystone clams, scrubbed
½ pound shrimp, peeled & deveined
1 pound of firm flesh fish, such as cod, halibut or sea bass
1 pound crabmeat

Heat oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, fennel, celery, parsley and garlic; sauté until tender. Add tomatoes with their juices and simmer for 10 minutes. Add 1 cup of wine, clams with their juices, rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay leaves, red pepper, allspice and cinnamon. Simmer 30 minutes.

Add water, wine and cherrystones. Simmer until the clams open, approximately 10 minutes. Discard any clams that do not open. Add crabmeat and cook for 5 minutes. Then add the fish and shrimp and simmer until everything is cooked through. Ladle into large bowls and serve with a crusty baguette and a salad. Chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas and cut-up, storebought poundcake can be a fun dessert (check TJ Maxx, Ross or Marshalls’s for a small, inexpensive fondue pot).

Don’t be afraid to play around with the ingredients. You can use mussels if you prefer them, or add some crab legs for taste and decoration. Onion can be substituted for the fennel. As my father always says “a recipe is just a guide”.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Like this:

Like Loading...

About Jennifer Williams

Food, Recipes, & Restaurants Columnist

Comments

  1. Katie says

    February 12, 2012 at 11:11 pm

    Sounds delicious!!! Can’t wait to taste it!!

    Log in to Reply
  2. KEESHA JACKSON says

    February 13, 2012 at 10:28 am

    Wow. I have eaten a lot if Cioppino in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay area. Always great. Your recipe is dead on. The only trick is don’t cook the fish too long or it gets tough.

    Log in to Reply
    • Jennifer Williams says

      February 13, 2012 at 6:13 pm

      Thanks for the input Keesha! Several of my readers have recommended that I give a wine pairing suggestion for each recipe.

      One of my favorite wines is a California Pinot Noir called Decoy by Duckhorn Vineyards. I first discovered it in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It runs about $20 and is worth every penny. I have not tried it with this particular dish, but it is a very drinkable red wine with hints of raspberry and cherry. A little sweeter than a typical Pinot Noir in my opinion.

      Log in to Reply
      • ALEX R says

        February 15, 2012 at 9:03 pm

        With cioppino I would go with a great little value priced white from Portugal called Vinho Verde. Not sweet at all and with a tiny bit of effervescence. Serve it well chilled. If you can find it locally it should come in about $8-$10. Most liquor stores don’t have it and will try to move you to a Pinot Grigio because it is an Italian white. In my opinion that is the easy choice and okay but you can do better than that and they will want you to buy it because that is what they have to sell and not because it is a great pairing. Another good wine but a little more money is Friulano. North east Italy and pairs well with seafood.

        Finally, some of the great white Italian wines for fish are the whites from the Amalfi coast. Often drunk by Italians to accompany La Vigilia – the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of 7 fishes.

        One thing we simply must do more of here in Harford County is to insist that our local wine shops be more creative in their offerings. Otherwise Harford County will become a ‘culinary Egypt’. If we are going to go to a lot of effort to cook a great cioppino then we should insist on something that is uniquely special to go with it. If we must go out of state then we must. And saving 9% by going to Delaware makes the trip financially worthwhile.

        Log in to Reply
        • Jennifer Williams says

          February 15, 2012 at 9:52 pm

          Alex – thanks for all of that info! I think YOU should write a food column ha ha. And I agree about the MD sales tax – thanks for sticking it to us O’Malley! My husband works in Virginia, so he has been buying all of our beer and wine at the Wegmans down there – lower prices AND lower taxes! I will put the Vinho Verde on his “grocery” list.

          Log in to Reply
  3. KEESHA JACKSON says

    February 20, 2012 at 12:29 pm

    I made a variation of this yesterday and it was great. I skipped the crab meat because all they had was imported and my experience with the stuff from outside the USA is “no taste” so not a bargain at any price. I skipped the cinnammon and allspice then took a hint from French recipes for Bouillabaisse very similar but not quite the same dish)and added some saffron. Also, just by coincidence (see Alex’s post above), I heard Lynn Rosetto Kasper mention Vinho Verde yesterday on her Splendid Table broadcast on Public Radio so I picked up a bottle of that on the fly. Good stuff at a decent price.

    BTW, the picture shows mussels but the recipe doesn’t mention them. Did you forget to list them in the recipe? All in all, everyone thought it rocked.

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sounding Off

  • “I can't wait to see what is in these emails that Bob is not wanting to share.”

    Bob Watch | Harford County Sheriff’s Office: Cassilly Administration in Violation of Maryland Public Information Act

  • “I like Gahler as well but don't forget he is backing his Sgt.Pennman who sits on the County Council. Pennman…”

    Lalta Durbal | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “This Cassilly/Penman spat I believe was initiated, at least in part, by the possibility of public housing projects being built…”

    Open Your Eyes | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “A plat revision reducing the number of lots is hardly worth you weeing your shorts over.”

    The Money Tree | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “You do know there is a system in the county called “Fast Track”. Ask your buddy Euler, he’s already used…”

    The Money Tree | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “Nothing at all suspicious about a property that has sat around for generations and then gets approved in record pace…”

    Bob Watch | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “The supposed development that everyone is referring to goes back generations. When 95 was built there were lots created by…”

    Dragonman | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “Right you are. Pretty comical that Bob Cassilly has a business registered at his home address that is not his…”

    Bob Watch | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “Quite a display of clownsmanship from Penman at last nights council meeting. Is he off his meds? You’re not in…”

    The Money Tree | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “I don’t have a dog in the fight regarding the Cassilly v. Penman conflict. I hope it is resolved in…”

    Open Your Eyes | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “Shenanigans? You’re hilarious.”

    The Money Tree | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “Yeah, that's the whole point. He is not any other county resident, he is the county executive and he and…”

    Happy Bob Real Estate | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “The amount of disinformation here is staggering. The land that is owned by Bobs family was actually platted for 14…”

    Dragonman | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “$145,000 for a part-time job and then demand more money? Pretty cushy spot he's in...maybe he needs to spend his…”

    The Money Tree | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “Cassilly makes way over 145k and in fact took a cola double of what he gave county employees. You are…”

    JJ | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “@money tree OMG! Penman is paid the same sergeant's salary that every one else earns and a rate that is…”

    Where there is Smoke | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “Good lord man, go back and read the claim being made. You folks are all over the map. First it's…”

    The Money Tree | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “@Money Tree Since you are so much in the know, Did Bob authorize the Administrator to sign as Bob Cassilly,…”

    Where there is Smoke | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “All that money must have you high. No one said executive forged a document. It is Bob claiming someone else…”

    Bob Watch | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “I will repeat - you are aware that any approvals for development go through various county agencies to ensure whatever…”

    The Money Tree | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “He had plats expedited and also some things allowed to get more lots. His Planning Advisory Board appointee Amy O’Neil…”

    JJ | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “Claiming the county executive forged a document could wind you up in civil court if you care to say that…”

    The Money Tree | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “You must be Bob with the name money tree since it seems to be raining down money on you and…”

    Bob Watch | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “Ethics complaint stating Cassilly signed off on a plat for development that involves his family which has already been easily…”

    The Money Tree | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

  • “I read the Aegis article and it looks like Penman made his ethics complaint on Feb. 14 and Cassilly made…”

    Bob Watch | Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly

Recent Posts

  • Trio Arrested In Connection With Alleged Assault, Kidnapping In Darlington March 17, 2025
  • 3P: “Developers’ Exploitation Led to Missed Opportunity for Harford County” December 19, 2024
  • 3P Protect Perryman Peninsula: Developers Exploit Horse Training Facility to Push Illegal Freight Terminal Project September 5, 2024
  • Arrest Made in Aberdeen Triple Homicide; Victims Identified April 30, 2024
  • Harford County Sheriff’s Office: Cassilly Administration in Violation of Maryland Public Information Act March 25, 2024
  • Harford County Executive Cassilly: “Once Again I Find Myself in the Position of Having to Fend Off Personal Attacks” March 20, 2024
  • Councilmember Penman Named as Subject of Harford Ethics Probe; Responds with Attacks on County Executive Cassilly February 28, 2024
  • Harford County to Purchase Land of Abandoned Eva Mar Development for New Public School in Bel Air February 27, 2024
  • Harford County Executive Cassilly Initiates Legislation for Comprehensive Zoning Review February 22, 2024
  • Edgewood Man Pleads Guilty to 1st Degree Murder February 22, 2024
  • Violent Carjacking in Aberdeen Leaves Man Injured; Victim Clings to Hood as Stolen Car Speeds Away February 17, 2024
  • Bel Air Man Found Guilty of Rape, Sex Offense, Assault; Faces Immigration Consequences February 9, 2024
  • Harford County Councilman Penman: “King Cassilly’s Intent is to Bully the County Council and Mislead our Community Members” February 6, 2024
  • Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly Announces Opposition to Legislation Allowing Freestanding Accessory Dwelling Units in Residential Areas January 16, 2024
  • Harford’s Cassilly Delivers State of the County Address: Redirecting Government to Serve People; No Tax Increases, Public Safety Upgrades, New County Parks January 12, 2024
  • Confrontation Leads to Gunshot, Murder in Bel Air December 30, 2023
  • Woman Charged with 1st-Degree Assault for Threatening Rental Company Employees in Aberdeen December 19, 2023
  • Edgewood Man Pleads Guilty to Attempted Rape and Intent to Distribute Cocaine December 11, 2023
  • Mother Charged with Homicide in Death of 3-Yr-Old Son in Bel Air December 4, 2023
  • Longtime Employee of Harford County Manufacturer Sentenced to 42 Months in Federal Prison for $20 Million Kickback Scheme December 1, 2023

Archives

Extras

  • About The Dagger
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

Sign up for The Daily Dagger Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to The Daily Dagger and receive new articles by email.

Copyright © 2025 ·Dagger Press LLC · Log in

%d