Saying I love seafood ranks as a huge understatement. It doesn’t matter what type or what course, I’ll generally take the ocean’s bounty over any other food. And when a dish combines seafood, what more could I ask? Recently, while visiting my sister Laura during her stay at the beach, she made Cioppino using one Giada De Laurentiis’s recipes as a guideline. After enjoying it so much, I made a stab at it after getting home.

Curious about its beginnings, I learned Cioppino is an Italian-American dish that originated in San Francisco. Immigrants from Genoa, Italy, settled in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco in the 1800s. Fisherman would use their catch of the day to make the dish while still out at sea. Eventually, the stew made its way to homes and restaurants. Alioto’s, a San Francisco landmark, apparently put this stew on the map.