Mama Rita Ferro’s kitchen is a great place to be. It’s always filled with amazing Italian food, family, friends, and her joyful spirit that guarantees lots of good times. Recently, I spent the afternoon there making cioppino with her and son Guido for their upcoming Beyond Wonderful International Home Chef feature.
Italian fishermen living in San Francisco made cioppino as a way of using leftover fish from the sales of their daily catches. Gathering around a community pot, they tossed the fish into a tomato-based sauce and cooked it long enough to release its juices and flavors. Mama Rita has spent years perfecting her sauce, and always makes it a day ahead so that the flavors have time to meld and ripen in anticipation of the fresh fish.
She sent Guido and me off to the Thien Loi Hoa supermarket in Oakland where they sell a variety of live and fresh fish—perfect for our cioppino. Serving a sizable Asian community, this market is filled with large tanks of swimming fish and crabs, aerated trays of clams, mussels and snails, and large displays of whole fish. Guido surveyed everything and couldn’t decide which “fat fish” he wanted—halibut or red snapper. I got distracted by a tray of six-inch conches in their shells.
“Hey, Barbara let’s get the snapper—that color is spectacular.” Our fish monger cleaned and filleted the fish, then also packed up the head and tail for us to use in stock.
Next, live Dungeness crabs. Our monger took us to the tank and picked two beauties, then wrapped them in butcher paper. They didn’t move much. Guido asked me if I’d ever cooked live crabs. “You know they scream,” he said with a grin, “Eeee! Eeee!” Undeterred by his pranks, I joined Guido in finishing off the shopping list: clams, mussels, shrimp and scallops.
Back at Mama Rita’s kitchen, the real fun began. I’d expected to toss our whole “catch” into the bubbling sauce at once, but Guido and Mama Rita let me in on a secret: cook the fragile snapper separately, then add it to the stew at the last minute. Otherwise the crab claws shred the snapper, creating mushy scraps rather than tender morsels. By the end of the 30-minute cooking time, everyone in the house had gathered in the kitchen, drawn by the intoxicating scent.
As always, we all had to wait patiently while Beyond Wonderful photographer, Windsor Andersen, worked her magic with the finished dish. Once she’d gotten the perfect shot, everyone filled their bowls and headed outside to the deck that overlooks a local canal. As we devoured our dinner, a boat sailed by and someone called up, “Hey, what are you cooking? It smells awesome. Are we invited for dinner?” We all waved and laughed, then got back to the serious business of sucking and picking the meat out of the shells and sopping up the sauce with an endless supply of hot garlic bread. With sauce running down my chin and all over my hands, I had to bless the Italian fishermen—and Mama Rita and Guido.
Take a look at Guido and Mama’s Rita’s Beyond Wonderful article, From Market to Meal: Classic Italian Cioppino, and get printable recipes.
This reminds me so much of the dinners my Nonna would make when I was growing up in Half Moon Bay. I remember my parents taking us to Sunday dinner and as we walked up the steps to the front door, all those wonderful aromas from the kitchen welcomed us in. My Nonna would tell me to hang up my coat and come into the kitchen to help her. Sometimes she would be cooking cioppino and would let me put in the all the ingredients into the big pot that was simmering. At first I didn’t like the yuckiness, but got use to it and was rewarded to a glorious dinner that I helped make. You really brought back the memories and I will try Mama Rita’s receipe and see how it compares to my Nonna’s. I think it might.
My husband loves cioppino and always talks about how his Grandma Rose would cook it for big family get together’s. I plan on making this for his 42nd birthday in March as a surprise.
I really enjoyed this entry. I was also impressed that you sought out an asian market for the fish. Smart shopping! I don’t know what you paid for the crab, shrimp, mussels, etc, but I do know that you saved a lot of money. Saavy cooks realize that shopping at local markets like the one you describe, not only are fun to explore, but the fresh fish is a significant savings over the major supermarkets. Also, the variety is greater and you’ll find those authentic ingrediants that make a recipe great. Thank you. Ginny
hi barbara it’s zack
my mom told me about your web site so i thought i would look you up and check it out. your blog is pretty cool. i miss you guys and i miss hangin out with you guys too. i saw the old shoreline cafe where we used to go eat at; that brought back good memories. i also seen windsor in one of the pictures too. tell everybody hello for me and i hope to hear back from you guys soon.
see ya
love zack and family.
its zack again
this is a great food blog its too bad i dont have the time to follow some of the recipes it all looks really good.
talk to you later
much love from zack and family.see ya