Seattle Style Cioppino
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Cioppino is a fisherman stew well known in the Pacific Northwest. This easy to make Seattle Style Cioppino is perfect for crabbing season or anytime you’re craving seafood stew that’s packed with delicious flavor and seasonal ingredients.
And when you’re shopping for seafood, a trip to the iconic Seattle Pike Place Market simply makes the cioppino that much better.
And of course, you can’t miss a visit to the world famous fishmongers and the flying fish at the 90-year-old Pike Place Fish Market.
Seattle’s Pike Place Market
The Seattle Times says, “The market, along with the Space Needle, has become one of Seattle’s most well-known landmarks, drawing thousands of visitors a day during peak summer months.”
As to the origins of the “flying fish?”
Previous owner John Yokoyama says the famed flying-fish ritual began “when he started counting the number of steps it took for him to pick up a customer’s selection, walk around to the backdoor, hustle over to the scales where the merchandise is weighed, cut and packaged, and then walk back around to the front with the wrapped package.”
He then adds, with Seattle practicality…
“It took me 100 steps,” said Yokoyama. “So one day I just said, ‘Here kid, catch!’ and threw the fish. He caught it and I said, ‘Man, I just saved 100 steps.’”
Cioppino Ingredients
Here are the ingredients I typically use when making this Seattle Style Cioppino. Specific ingredient measurements are in the recipe card below.
Cioppino is a dish where many adaptations and seasonal ingredients live. I choose which seafood I add to the dish based on what’s fresh in my fish market.
- Olive oil for sauteing
- Seafood: cooked Dungeness crabs, clams, shrimp, and scallops
- Aromatics: onion, garlic, oregano, basil, parsley, salt and pepper
- White wine and water for cooking liquid
- Fresh or canned tomatoes with additional tomato paste for concentrated flavor and texture
Celebrate the best from your fish market with this Seattle style cioppino!
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Seattle Style Cioppino
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 freshly cooked Dungeness crabs approximately 2 lbs each
- 24 clams well scrubbed
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion finely chopped
- 3 large cloves garlic minced
- 2 pounds fresh tomatoes peeled, seeded, and chopped (or 1 28-ounce can of tomatoes)
- 3 ounces tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon fresh oregano chopped
- 1 tablespoon basil finely chopped
- 2 pounds fresh salmon or halibut cut into large pieces
- 3/4 pound scallops
- 3/4 pound raw shrimp peeled and deveined
- Chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Remove the legs and claws from the crabs and break the body in half. Clean bodies off. Place the clams in a pan, add 1 cup of wine, and steam, covered, over medium heat for 5 minutes or until clams open.
- Remove clams and discard any that do not open.
- Strain the stock through a cheesecloth and reserve.
- In an 8-quart saucepan, heat the oil. Add the onion and garlic and sauté over medium heat until soft, but not browned. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, and 2 cups of water, pepper, herbs, and clam stock.
- Partially cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Add the fish, scallops, shrimp, crab, and crab butter. Simmer for approximately 5 minutes or until all seafood is cooked; do not stir or the fish will break apart.
- Add the clams and heat for a scant 1 minute. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately from the pot.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.