🇮🇹 Italy · Liguria (Riviera di Levante, Genoa area)

CiuppinLigurian fish soup

Name: Ciuppin (Ligurian fish soup)
Total time: 1 h 45 min
Yield: 4–6 servings
Cuisine: Italy
Ingredients: 1.2 kg (2.6 lb) mixed rock and soup fish: scorpionfish (scorpena), gurnard (cappone), white bream (sarago), dentex, weever, small red mullet, scaled and gutted, heads kept, large ones cut in pieces; 5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, ideally Riviera Ligure PDO, plus a little to serve; 1 onion, finely chopped; 1 carrot, finely chopped; 1 celery stalk, finely chopped; 2 cloves garlic, chopped; 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped; 150 ml (2/3 cup) dry white wine; 400 g (14 oz) ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or canned peeled tomatoes); 1.5 L (6 1/3 cups) hot water; 1 pinch dried oregano; salt and black pepper, to taste; 8–12 slices day-old country bread, toasted

A Ligurian fish soup in which the day's unsold fish are cooked with onion, carrot, celery, tomato and white wine, then pressed through a food mill into a smooth, bone-free soup, served over bread.

Origin and history

Ciuppin comes from the Riviera di Levante, the coast east of Genoa around Sestri Levante and the Gulf of Tigullio. It was a household dish, made with small bony rock fish that fetched little at market, pressed through a food mill so no bones remained. The name is usually explained as 'suppin', little soup. Ligurian emigrants carried it to the River Plate as chupín, and it is listed among Liguria's traditional dishes.

Make it at home

Makes: 4–6 servings
Total time: 1 h 45 min
Hands-on: 40 min

Ingredients

Metric US

1.2 kg2.6 lb mixed rock and soup fish: scorpionfish (scorpena), gurnard (cappone), white bream (sarago), dentex, weever, small red mullet, scaled and gutted, heads kept, large ones cut in pieces
5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, ideally Riviera Ligure PDO, plus a little to serve
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped
150 ml2/3 cup dry white wine
400 g14 oz ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (or canned peeled tomatoes)
1.5 L6 1/3 cups hot water
1 pinch dried oregano
salt and black pepper, to taste
8–12 slices day-old country bread, toasted

Method

1. Rinse the fish and sort them: firm, large ones apart from the small, delicate ones.
2. Warm the olive oil in a large heavy pot over medium-low heat and cook the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and half the parsley for 8–10 minutes, until soft and lightly golden.
3. Pour in the white wine and let it bubble until it has evaporated.
4. Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes, then pour in the hot water, season with salt, pepper and the oregano and bring to the boil.
5. Add the firm fish first, then after 5 minutes the smaller, delicate ones.
6. Simmer gently, half covered, for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until the fish have completely fallen apart into the broth.
7. Pass everything, heads and bones included, through a food mill set over a clean pot, pressing hard so all the flesh goes through and the bones and spines stay behind (a blender cannot do this). For a very smooth soup, pass it again through a fine sieve.
8. Return the soup to the heat and simmer for a few minutes; it should be smooth and creamy, about as thick as a light purée. Add a little hot water if it is too dense, and check the salt.
9. Put the toasted bread in deep bowls, ladle the hot ciuppin over it and finish with the remaining parsley and a thread of olive oil.

Notes

Ciuppin is a fish purée, not a soup with pieces of fish in it: that is what sets it apart from the brodetto, buridda and other Ligurian fish stews. Some cooks blanch the fish first, take the flesh off the bones and cook only the flesh in the sauce, using the bones for a separate broth; the result is the same smooth soup.
The Liguria Gourmet list of traditional dishes recommends dentex or else gurnard, white bream or scorpionfish. Ciuppin di gallinella is a version made only with gurnard. Some cooks add a cuttlefish for sweetness, a salted anchovy, saffron or a pinch of nutmeg; a little chilli is common.
Outside the Mediterranean, use small whole bony white fish and fish heads (red snapper, gurnard, sea robin, porgy, rockfish); the flavour depends more on the bones and heads than on the variety.
In Argentina and Uruguay, where Ligurian emigrants took it, chupín de pescado is served in chunks rather than sieved, with garlic-rubbed toast. San Francisco's cioppino is often said to take its name from ciuppin, but it is a different dish of whole seafood in tomato broth.
The soup keeps 2 days refrigerated and reheats well; toast the bread just before serving.

Adapted from Camera di Commercio Riviere di Liguria, Liguria Gourmet: Elenco piatti tradizionali (Ciuppin), Renata Briano: Ricetta ciuppin, and CooksInfo: Ciuppin.