Seafood Cioppino with Fresh Crab, Cod, and Mussels

Ok so my husband isn't a huge fan of seafood but I love it and especially mussels! I'm so excited to try the rest of my mussels tomorrow with white wine and garlic! Yum!

This is a sort of fishermans stew that I've been wanting to make for a while, I'm on my health kick and this is very healthy, except for the giant piece of crusty bread sticking out of it. We will just pretend that whole thing didn't go into my belly!

To start the sauce I cut up 2 stalks of celery, 1 large carrot, half a large onion and 4 cloves of garlic.

I chopped up 2 tablespoons of Basil and parsley and the leaves of 2 sprigs of thyme.

I sautéed the onions, carrots, and celery in a little olive oil for a few minutes till softened then added the garlic, herbs and 2 bay leaves. Stirred that and made sure I didn't burn the garlic.

Then I added 1 8oz can of tomato sauce.

1 large 24oz can of San Marzano tomatoes. Crush them with a potato masher.

2 8oz bottles of clam juice

A splash of Worcestershire sauce. 

1 tbls of brown sugar.

A pinch of red pepper flake. Then brought that to a boil then back down to a simmer for an hour.

After the sauce is cooked I put in another Dutch oven a tablespoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter, and 1 clove of garlic minced. Let that simmer for a minute.

Then added 2 handfuls of cleaned mussels.

Add a splash of Worcestershire sauce and 1/4 a cup of white wine. Put a lid on it and let cook for 3 minutes till all the mussels opened.

When they are open I lifted the lid off and made sure the sauce was close by.

I ladled a couple ladles of sauce on top of the mussels.

Then cut up a lbs of cod into chunks and half a cup of fresh jumbo lump crab meat.

Put that on top of the mussels. Then poured the rest of the sauce on top of that and put the lid on for 5 minutes at high heat till the fish is cooked through. Stir carefully not to break up the fish and crab.

Then served with some crusty bread and wine! So yummy!!