Seafood Sauce, aka Cioppino

I was a picky eater as a kid (no kidding.) For years while Sicilian and Calabrian delicacies abounded on all sides of me, I was the kid who insisted on pasta with butter, a grilled cheese sandwich instead of my mother’s cacciatore, or the ever-dreaded “how you say, come’si chiama, hot’a, hot-t-t’a, hot-t-t dooog?”¹ Needless to say, my father was appalled. My mother on the other hand was patient. “Give it time,” she said, “he’ll come around.” She had the patience of Job and I was a teenager before Ma’s wisdom began to become evident.

I was born in 1970 to parents of Sicilian heritage on both sides of my family. Times change and growing up in our modern society is understandably different than it was for kids of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Our mothers didn’t text us, they yelled “AAANT’NYYYY”² out their kitchen windows when supper was ready. There was a culture, “an Italian bigness,”³ if you will that existed in my childhood and I believe it is still evident today. We have to look a little harder to find it than we did as kids, which comes as no surprise. Like so many others, as I became an adult entrenched in my own career, life, and community, I found my life only sparsely touched by the culture of my childhood unlike when I was young, when my family’s culture constituted my reality completely.

One of dishes that could coax me out of the darkness of early culinary timidity and into the light of that wonderful culture and still takes me back to my mother’s table even today was her “Sicilian Seafood Sauce.” As I’ve since gone out and experienced the culinary world on my own I see now it could easily be called a cioppino – and a delicious one. The list of ingredients is short:

The broth:

2 Lg cans of whole Tomatoes (San Marzano preferred)

1 full head garlic, cloves halved or quartered

Oregano, to taste

Tarragon, 1 small bunch, whole

Italian parsley, 1 large bunch, chopped stems removed

Black Pepper, crushed, to taste

Crushed Red Pepper, to taste

The seafood:

Lobster, 1 chix/select

Shrimp, 1 lb, large or jumbo

Calamari, 1 lb, cut into discs & tentacles

Clams, 1/2 – 3/4 lb, cherrystones

Mussels, 1 lb

And the instructions to make it are simple:

1. Sauté garlic in olive oil until hot (do not brown the garlic)
2. Add the tomatoes and 1 full can of water each
3. Add seasonings to taste (oregano, tarragon, parsley, black & crushed red pepper)
4. Frequently stir, simmering “as long as necessary” (by taste, typically 45 min – 1 hr)
5. 20 min prior to serving: add cleaned shrimp, lobster, & calamari
6. 15 min prior to serving: add clams & mussels (discard any of either, which do not open during cooking.)
7. Serve over linguini al denté with a warm, heartily crusted Italian bread on the side (Semolina, etc.)

Seafood has long been a staple in Southern Italian cuisine and life including that of my own family. I hope you’ll try our “Seafood Sauce” (aka Cioppino) and enjoy it as much as did 30 yrs ago and still do today with local seafood that continues to bring my family abundant comfort and smiles, “just like back home.”³

Ah Salut!

Notes:

1. Big Night, 1996, Primo, portrayed by Tony Shaloub
2. Anthony Martignetti, his Mom, and the Prince Pasta Company, ca. 1969
3. The Goomba’s Book of Love, 2003, Steven Scharippa
4. Photo of preparation available upon request by Sicilian Food Culture
5. Submitted: 17-January-2021 staff@sicilianfoodculture.com

Italian Food Culture