Cioppino

with the pepper I would opt for a fruity and light Pinot or even a nice Beaujolais maybe a Morgon or Fleurie?

actually I think rose sparkler would go well throughout meal! If you're light with pepper I think your PN might work. If it gives real spice, then rose (still or bubbly) would be my choice

DaleW wrote on Sat, 8 Jan 2011 12:54:00 -0800 (PST):

Cioppino is a great San Francisco invention isn't it? I've seen recent posts ascribing it to old Italy.

It is baste on ciuppìn, a traditional fish preparation from Liguria, similar to bouillabaisse. The original recipe was more or less as follows.

In one pot lightly brown chopped onion, garlic, anchovies in OO. Toss around in this mixture 1kg of fish, of the kind that normally merchants would not be able to sell at the market (broken bits, small rock fish, etc.). Add a litre of water and boil.

In a second pot start of with the same onion garlic anchovy mixture, add

Go back to first pot, mush everything up with a potato masher then put everything through a mill (the kind you find in Italy, with the handle; the result with an electric mixer is not quite the same...). Keep the dregs from the mill and press them in a sieve to get the last bit of juice out of them. Put everything through a fine sieve.

Transfer the (thick) broth obtained in the first pot to the second pot. Cook 10 minutes. You are now ready to cook the actual fish, try and find rock fish like conger eel, gurner, scorpion fish, monk fish or whatever hangs around your rocks, not too big not too small, you will put one fish per portion. We now have barracuda around my waters, that will also do if you slice it up first. Cook the fish 10 minutes in the broth, sprinkle them with parsley when you add them to the pot; conger will require 5 extra minutes cooking time, start it first. The trick is to time the fish so that they all get cooked just right.

Prepare the plate, slice some nice crusty bread, toast and put one slice on each plate, put the fish on the bread, one per plate, cover in broth and some OO.

ciao

Mike

Mike wrote on Sun, 09 Jan 2011 10:11:44 +0100:

Thanks! I guess the major difference is that cioppino is not a thick soup but ciuppin sounds great too!

My version was a close approximation. I served it with a bottle of

Nice

Strong dishes like this usually call for a "different" wine, I would definitely think of a really good sherry, something like a palo cortado.

Actually that is a great suggestion and I'll serve Sherry next time..which will be soon.