The most complex part of making seafood stew is prepping the seafood, so this is sort of my “cheater” version. If you buy less-expensive types like bay scallops, mussels, squid, and smaller shrimp, this can also be a relative bargain. The cheater part is that I buy raw, pre-prepped ingredients. No shelling or chopping involved. You can put this all together in about 15 minutes, including cooking time. No kidding.
The recipe is also highly adaptable, so use or omit whatever you like, and adjust the hot pepper to taste. Do use seafood that is roughly the same size and/or that cooks in about the same time frame–seafood cooks very quickly, and you want to avoid overcooking any of the elements. Note that when cooking clams, mussels, or oysters, any that remain closed after cooking should be discarded. There are few things worse than eating a spoiled mollusk.
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup finely chopped shallot or white onion
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 cups diced tomatoes with juice (I use Pomi brand)
- 1 cup dry white wine (optional)
- 3 cups water
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4-1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper, or crushed red pepper (I use about 3/4 teaspoon, but I like spicy)
- 2 pounds assorted seafood, frozen or fresh (I used mussels, squid, shrimp, and bay scallops)
- snipped fresh chives
- In a 5-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the shallot and cook, stirring frequently, until it just starts to soften. Add the garlic, tomatoes and juice, white wine, water, smoked paprika, and Aleppo pepper. Bring to a low boil.
- Add in your seafood and cover the pot. Cook until the mussels have just opened and the shrimp have just turned pink--this will literally only take 3-5 minutes. Stir in the chives, and taste to adjust the seasoning, if needed. Salt levels will depend on the type of tomatoes you use, as well as the seafood. Serve hot.
Thanks for reading,
-Angela
I love the simplicity of this soup. Since it is a bit on the lighter side it looks perfect for summer or one of Colorado's famous cold spring days like today. I can't wait to try it.
I wish there was an app that would allow me to pull a bowl of this from my screen! Looks Delicious!
I love fresh seafood and this is a beautiful dish. I would love to eat this with some hearty bread to dunk into the sauce. Have a wonderful and relaxing vacation!
Looks very very very yuuuummmmy
This is one of my favorite go-to meals…when I discovered the bags of frozen seafood mix at my local grocery, I was so happy! Thanks for sharing with us!
I started getting the bags of mixed seafood at Costco–sooooo easy!
This looks awesome! I love seafood so much:)
Amazing so yummy!! My family loved it!
I am so glad you all liked it! That makes my day, thanks for letting me know.
Would you please suggest a “dry white wine”. I never know what to use for cooking, and I read that “cooking wines” from the grocery store are definitely a NO-NO.
Hi Marcia: My favorite white wine for cooking is an inexpensive Sauvignon Blanc. “Cooking wines” from the grocery are loaded with salt, so yeah, I would totally avoid them.
Thank you for the info about the wine. Have a wonderful day.
Anita
I think I did something wrong I was trying to make this for my mom for her birthday and it came out sour and I still had cubes of tomato is that suppose to be there? I used a frozen bag of mix seafood.and I used a Woodbridge white wine.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I had my doubts going in because it seemed a little too simple, but holy cow is this good.
FYI, I tweaked it a little bit by adding oregano to the base – I also used a frozen bag of assorted mollusk (Cosco) and increased the amount of cooking time to adjust for the decrease in temperature once the frozen goods were in the base.
This will be a new staple dish for me 🙂
Sounds great! In the summer I like to add in fresh herbs. So happy you liked the recipe.