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Recipe Cards
A compilation of recipes from each of the 28 National Estuary Programs*

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San Francisco Estuary
Phone: 510.622.8137
Web: www.sfestuary.org

Cioppino

4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 tbl red-wine vinegar
1 tsp dried oregano, crumbled
1 bay leaf
1 28-32 oz can whole tomatoes, including juice, puréed coarse
1 tbl tomato paste
2 lbs live hard-shelled crabs
12 small hard-shelled clams, scrubbed well
1/2 lb medium shrimp, shelled, leaving tails and first joint intact
1/2 lb sea scallops
1 lb scrod or other white fish fillet, cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tbl minced fresh parsley leaves

In a heavy kettle (at least 5 quarts) cook garlic in oil over moderate heat, stirring, until pale golden. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened. Add pepper flakes and bell pepper and cook, stirring, until softened. Add vinegar and boil until evaporated. Add wine, oregano, and bay leaf and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in tomato purée and tomato paste and bring to a boil.

Add crabs and clams and simmer, covered, 15 to 20 minutes, checking often and transferring clams as they open with tongs to a bowl (discard unopened ones). Transfer crabs with tongs to a cutting board and remove top shells, adding any crab liquid to soup. Halve or quarter crabs (depending on size) and reserve, with any additional liquid, in a bowl.

Add shrimp, scallops, and fish to soup and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes, or until seafood is just cooked through. Gently stir in crabs, their liquid, the clams and sprinkle with parsley.
Serves six.

* ANEP and its associates are not responsible for any health difficulties caused by recipes found on this website.

The San Francisco Estuary encompasses roughly 1,600 square miles, including 700 miles of rivers and sloughs and 1,100 miles of levees. The estuary drains about 40 percent of California's landscape (over 60,000 square miles) and 47 percent of the state's total runoff. Historically, herds of elk and antelope roamed the hillsides around the estuary, and hordes of salmon and thousands of seals and sea otter frequented its waters. According to eyewitness reports, flocks of birds were sometimes so thick