Cioppino

Cioppino

I think this may be one of the easiest meals I have ever made (and one of the most delicious). The ingredient list may seem long, but most of the items you will already have in the kitchen and nearly all the rest can be bought at a fish market. I think the trip to the fish market was one of my favorite parts of this process.

The recipe is adapted from "Cooking Light: Annual Recipes 2004" and is a recipe from Mothers Restaurant in Portland, OR. From what I read cioppino goes really really well with a fresh loaf of crusty french bread or a batch of french fries. Since Will and I cannot eat wheat, we skipped the bread and ended up pairing this with rice and a side salad. I also changed this recipe so that there is more broth than other cioppino recipes.

Ingredients

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper 
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups clam juice 
• 1 cup water
• 1 Tbs dry parsley
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 of a 26 oz bottle of tomato-basil pasta sauce 
• 10 littleneck clams 
• 10 small mussels, scrubbed and debearded 
• 1/2 cup dry white wine 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper 
• 1/2 # of lean white fish (cod, halibut) - cut into 1 inch pieces 
• 1/2 # of medium shrimp, peeled & deveined 
• 2 cups torn spinach 

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large soup pot over medium-high heat. 
2. Add the red pepper and garlic - saute for a minute. 
3. Stir in the clam juice, water, parsley, basil, thyme & tomato sauce - heat for a couple minutes. 
4. Add the clams & mussels - cover and cook for 10 minutes or until the shells open (Discard and do not eat any unopened shells). 
5. Add the wine, salt, black pepper, white fish & shrimp - simmer for 5 more minutes. 
6. Stir in the spinach - cook for one more minute. 
7. Serve and enjoy!!!