California-Style Cioppino Pizza

Dig into this show-stopping Cioppino pizza, a California-style take on the famous San Francisco fisherman’s stew.
Cioppino Pizza

Cioppino “chip in” stew is a San Francisco speciality, coined by local fishermen sharing the days’ catch to create a seafood-packed stew that everyone could enjoy. This California-style Cioppino pizza from Ooni ambassador Mike Holman (@pizzainthesac) is designed to be eaten like the classic dish, sitting atop a crispy sourdough base that’s perfect for dipping and tearing. 

Equipment
Ooni Cast Iron Skillet Pan

Ingredients
Makes 1x 12” pizza

For the Pizza
300g sourdough/ classic pizza dough ball 
Whatever seafood you have available:
Cod
Mussels
Clams
Crab
Shrimp

For the Cioppino Sauce
2 tbsp Olive Oil
½  onion, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
2 clove garlic, finely chopped
Pinch red pepper flake
2 tbsp tomato paste
400g can chopped/plum tomato
184ml (¾ cup) white wine
352ml (2 ½ cup) fish stock
bay leaf

To garnish
Fresh parsley
Lemon, cut into wedges
Pecorino Romano

 

Method
Prepare your pizza dough ahead of time. Our guide to making the perfect Classic Pizza Dough covers everything you need to know.

For the sauce for this pizza, first heat a Large Pot over medium heat. Add the oil, then cook the onion with a pinch of salt until translucent for about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes and cook for a further 2 mins, then add the tomato paste and stir to incorporate. 

Add the can of tomatoes (if whole, crush up before), white wine, fish stock and bay leaf and cover and reduce to simmer for about 30 min.

Fire up your Ooni pizza oven. Aim for 230˚C (450˚F ) on the stone baking board inside. You can check the temperature inside your Ooni quickly and easily using the Ooni Infrared Thermometer

Place your skillet inside the oven to preheat for 10 minutes. Once hot, remove the pan and add a little oil. Lay over the cod first, followed by the clams and mussels. Return the pan to the oven and cook the seafood for a few minutes, checking the pan every 30 seconds. 

Remove the pan and add the shrimp and crab and return the pan to the oven until all the fish is cooked through. Once fully cooked, remove the pan and add several generous servings of the sauce on top. Set aside while you prepare the base.

Increase the heat of the oven by either turning up the gas dial, or spike the flame with some wood. Aim for 450˚C (900˚F).

Using a small amount of flour, dust your Ooni pizza peel. Stretch the pizza dough ball out and lay it out on your pizza peel. Don’t try to stretch the dough too thin, as you’ll need a sturdy base for the topping-heavy pizza. 

With a large spoon or ladle, spread a generous layer of Cioppino sauce evenly over the base, as if you were preparing a marinara pizza. Slide the pizza off the peel and into the Ooni pizza oven. Cook for 1-2 minutes, until spotted with colour. 

Place the seafood skillet back into the oven to reheat. Once piping hot, remove and add the seafood to the base of the pizza, along with any remaining sauce. 

To finish, garnish with a few sprigs of parsley, grated pecorino, and wedges of lemon. Serve immediately, and eat the seafood right out of the base like a stew, leaving the crust to mop up the sauce. 

Cioppino Pizza