Scoma's has served cioppino on Fisherman's Wharf since 1965, from a Sicilian mother's recipes. The SF Examiner learned how it's built.

Come sit, baby, because this one smells like Sunday. The San Francisco Examiner sent staff writer Natalia Gurevich into the kitchen at Scoma's on Fisherman's Wharf to learn cioppino, the seafood stew created in San Francisco in the late 19th century by immigrant fishermen, with roots in Italy's Liguria region. Scoma's opened in 1965, and its seafood dishes trace back to Al Scoma's mother, a Sicilian immigrant whose recipes the family used from the start. Culinary director Gordon Drysdale, there 13 years, kept the cioppino mostly as it was but improved a few key ingredients, swapping Mexican oregano for Sicilian and Central Valley tomatoes for San Marzanos. "We can't stay back in 1965 forever, but we can keep the classic feelings with the classic recipes, with a modern twist," said Sancia Scoma, Al Scoma's daughter and one of the co-owners. The broth is made each morning in a 60-gallon vat, and Drysdale says the base is simple: tomatoes, onion, garlic, red-wine vinegar and dried herbs. Then each bowl comes together in stages in the hot broth. Clams and mussels go in first, because their shells need time to open. Next come the fish, two kinds of cod, along with shrimp, followed by the scallops. Fresh crab meat goes on top at the very end, because crab is delicate and can overcook in a blink. Add a few slices of sourdough garlic bread for dipping, and that's supper. Now, cher, that's the whole secret of a family kitchen, whether it sits on a wharf in San Francisco or a bayou in Louisiana: keep the recipe your mama brought, improve what you can, and put everything in the pot in the order it needs. Make a pot this fall, set out the bread and call somebody to come eat it with you.