Ciuppin is the Ligurian progenitor of the Bay Area's Cioppino. Here's a recipe that cooks slowly and will be perfect in winter.
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 3 hours
Ingredients:
- 3 pounds mixed fish, including eel, gronghi (salt water eel), star gazer, octopus or squid,
- calamari, bream, piper fish, scorpion fish, and whatever else your fishmonger has that looks good)
- 1 onion, finely sliced
- 1/2 a celery rib, minced
- 1 small bunch parsley, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- A pinch of oregano
- 1/4 cup extravirgin olive oil
- 4 tomatoes, blanched, peeled, seeded and crushed by hand
- 1 cup dry white wine such as Vermentino or Cinque Terre (it should not be oaked)
- Salt & freshly ground pepper
- Slices of toasted Italian bread
- A little more minced parsley.
Preparation:
Clean the fish, fillet them to bone them, and chop them, keeping heads and tails. In the meantime, sauté the minced herbs in the oil in a large, preferably earthenware pot. As soon as the onion has lightly browned stir in the wine and simmer until it evaporates. Add the tomatoes and simmer covered, stirring occasionally, for about a half hour. Add the fish, season to taste with salt and pepper, and continue simmering over a very low flame until the fish falls completely apart, about 2 hours. Should the soup look like it's drying out, sprinkle in some boiling water (have a small pot handy on the stove).
Put the soup through a food mill, and then a strainer to remove all the bones and scales. Return it to the fire and heat it through while you are toasting the bread. Line the bowls with the bread, ladle the ciuppin over it, dust them with the last of the minced parsley, and serve.
Serve it in soup bowls, over slices of toasted bread, with either a Vermentino, or a Pigato -- Lambruschi or Il Monticello both make fine Vermentino, while Riccardo Bruna and Durin make excellent Pigato. Another possibility would be a zesty red, for example a Rossese di Dolceacqua. Tenuta Giuncheo's is quite nice.
In closing, the practice of making a rich fish stew and serving it over toasted bread is quite common. Liguria is also known for buridda, in which the fish and vegetables are layered in a casserole and then slowly cooked over the stove. The Tuscan port of Livorno, a hundred miles south, is instead known for cacciucco, a fish stew that's graced by a healthy jolt of red pepper.
Put the soup through a food mill, and then a strainer to remove all the bones and scales. Return it to the fire and heat it through while you are toasting the bread. Line the bowls with the bread, ladle the ciuppin over it, dust them with the last of the minced parsley, and serve.
Serve it in soup bowls, over slices of toasted bread, with either a Vermentino, or a Pigato -- Lambruschi or Il Monticello both make fine Vermentino, while Riccardo Bruna and Durin make excellent Pigato. Another possibility would be a zesty red, for example a Rossese di Dolceacqua. Tenuta Giuncheo's is quite nice.
In closing, the practice of making a rich fish stew and serving it over toasted bread is quite common. Liguria is also known for buridda, in which the fish and vegetables are layered in a casserole and then slowly cooked over the stove. The Tuscan port of Livorno, a hundred miles south, is instead known for cacciucco, a fish stew that's graced by a healthy jolt of red pepper.
