Vincenzio's Cioppino

One of my favorite soup. This is my brother-in-law's recipe. To check the history of this Italian/American soup check Cioppino .

FRESH SEAFOOD IS BEST FOR THIS DISH IF YOU HAVE THE ACCESS BUT FROZEN FRESH SEAFOOD WOULD BE GREAT AS WELL.

Ingredients

Part I
• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 1 large sweet onion, chopped medium

• 1 cup tomato sauce ( I used my homemade tomato sauce )

• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper  (optional)

• Salt and pepper, to taste

• 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped fine

• 1 small sprig of fresh rosemary

• 2 bay leaves

• 3 cloves of garlic, minced

• 4 celery, finely chopped

• ½ cup carrots, chopped

Using a soup pot or Dutch oven, sauté the chopped onion, garlic, celery and carrots,  in olive oil, until translucent. Add the herb and spices, sauté for another minute. Add tomato sauce and cayenne pepper. Simmer and cook for 25 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste

Part 2

• 1 lb raw shrimp, cleaned

• 1 lb bay scallop

• ½ lb sea bass, cut into1-2-inch cubes

• 1 fresh cracked dungeness crab (I used Snow crab on this occasion)

• 1 lb mussels, in shell

• ½ cup white wine (Always use a wine that you will drink, never use cooking wine)

• 1-2 cups shrimp broth or clam juice (I used homemade shrimp broth)

Arrange the seafood into the Dutch oven (Part I). Add crabs first, then the mussels, shrimps, fish and the bay scallops last. Pour the rest of the liquid. Cover and bring to a boil on medium high heat. After it reaches a boil, lower heat to low. When shrimps, crabs, fish are cooked and mussels are open, the soup is ready.

I love to serve this w/ any artisan bread or any crusty bread.