Quick Cioppino

After a long weekend of staying up late and eating junk food (fried chicken from the Dutch on Sunday morning with Alice), I thought Jamie and I needed some soup. I saw this recipe for a quick cioppino on Epicurious and it looked perfect - I altered it slightly with adding in some clams and letting the wine cook down a little bit. It's pretty healthy and has a really hearty, stew flavor from the red wine. It's great as a winter meal with some toasted sour dough bread and you get so many nice, chunks of seafood. And I got to use my beautiful, new Le Creuset pot, so I was a happy little housewife.

Ingredients:

1 fennel bulb, halved and sliced

1 medium onion, halved and sliced

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 bay leaves 

1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme

1/8 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in juice

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup full-bodied red wine

1 (8-ounce) bottle clam juice

1 pound skinless fillets of thick white-fleshed fish such as halibut, hake, or pollack, cut into 2-inch chunks

1/2 pound mussels, scrubbed and debearded

1/2 pound clams, scrubbed

Directions:

Heat oil in a large pot and saute vegetables, bay leaves, thyme, red pepper flakes, 1 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp black pepper. 

Cook, covered, over medium heat, stirring once or twice, until veggies are soft. 

Add the wine and stir for about 1 minute. Add tomatoes and their juice, water, and clam juice and boil, covered, for 20 minutes. 

Stir in seafood and cook, covered, until the clams open. 

Discard bay leaf and any clams or mussels that haven't opened and serve immediately.