Cioppino (, ; from ) is a

fish stew Fish stew is a stew with a soup base or ingredient of fish as food. List Types of fish stew from around the world include: * '' Asam Pedas'' ( Indonesian) and ( Malaysian) * ''Bouillabaisse'' ( Provençal fish stew originating from Marseille, ...

originating in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, California, an Italian-American cuisine related to various fish soups in

Italian cuisine Italian cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine#CITEREFDavid1988, David 1988, Introduction, pp. 101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes, and cooking techniques developed in Italy since Ancient Roman cuisine, Roman times, and later spread ...

Description

Cioppino is traditionally made from the catch of the day, which in San Francisco is typically a combination of

dungeness crab The Dungeness crab (''Metacarcinus magister'') makes up one of the most important seafood industries along the west coast of North America. Its typical range extends from Alaska's Aleutian Islands to Point Conception, near Santa Barbara, Califo ...

clams Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc. The word is often applied only to those that are deemed edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams h ...

shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...

scallops Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve molluscs in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related famili ...

squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...

mussels Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, whic ...

, and fish, all sourced from the Pacific. The seafood is then combined with fresh

tomatoes The tomato (, ), ''Solanum lycopersicum'', is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated from and was d ...

in a

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

sauce. The dish can be served with toasted bread, either local

sourdough Sourdough is a type of bread that uses the fermentation by naturally occurring yeast and lactobacillus bacteria to raise the dough. In addition to leavening the bread, the fermentation process produces lactic acid, which gives the bread its dis ...

or French bread. The bread acts as a starch, similar to a pasta, and is dipped into the sauce.

History

Cioppino was developed in the late 1800s by Italian immigrants and Spaniards and some Portuguese who fished off Meiggs Wharf and lived in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, many from the port city of

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. When a fisherman came back empty-handed, he would walk around with a pot for the other fishermen to chip in whatever they could. This became his "cioppino". The fishermen that chipped in expected the same treatment if they came back empty-handed in the future. It later became a staple as Italian restaurants proliferated in San Francisco. The name is also said to derive from '' ciuppin'' (also spelled ''ciupin'') which is the name of a classic soup from the Italian region

Liguria Liguria (; ; , ) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is roughly coextensive with ...

, similar in flavor to cioppino but with less tomato and using Mediterranean seafood cooked to the point that it falls apart. The dish also shares its origin with other regional Italian variations of seafood stew similar to ''cioppino'', including ''

cacciucco ''Cacciucco'' () is an Italian fish stew native to the western coastal towns of Tuscany.Danny Meyer, ''The Union Square Cafe Cookbook: 160 Favorite Recipes from New York's Acclaimed Restaurant'' (HarperCollins 2005). It is especially associated ...

'' from

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

, '' brodetto di pesce'' from

Abruzzo Abruzzo (, ; ; , ''Abbrìzze'' or ''Abbrèzze'' ; ), historically also known as Abruzzi, is a Regions of Italy, region of Southern Italy with an area of 10,763 square km (4,156 sq mi) and a population of 1.3 million. It is divided into four ...

and others. Similar dishes can be found in coastal regions throughout the Mediterranean, from Spain to Greece. Examples of these include '' suquet de peix'' from Catalan-speaking regions and ''

bouillabaisse Bouillabaisse ( , , ; ) is a traditional Cuisine of Provence, Provençal fish soup originating in the port city of Marseille. The word is originally a compound of the two Provençal verbs ('to boiling, boil') and ('to reduce heat', i.e. 'sim ...

'' from

Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...

. The earliest printed description of cioppino is from a 1901 recipe in '' The San Francisco Call'', though the stew is called "chespini". "Cioppino" first appears in 1906 in ''The Refugee's Cookbook'', a fundraising effort to benefit San Franciscans displaced by the 1906 earthquake and fire.

Presentation

Generally the seafood is cooked in broth and served in the shell, including the crab, which is often served halved or quartered. It therefore requires special utensils, typically a

crab fork A crab fork (similar to, and sometimes synonymous with, a shrimp fork) is a small type of seafood fork designed for extracting flesh from a crab or lobster. These forks are typically long and narrow and are used for separating the meat of a crab or ...

and cracker. Depending on the restaurant, it may be accompanied by a bib to prevent food stains on clothing, a damp napkin and a second bowl for the shells. A variation, commonly called "lazy man's cioppino", is served with shells pre-cracked or removed.

References

External links

{{Commons category
Gianni's North Beach
Video plus text, presenting the dish as a Christmas Eve stew American stews Cuisine of the San Francisco Bay Area Fish stews Italian-American cuisine American seafood dishes Californian cuisine

Description

History

Presentation

See also

References

External links