Fideuà

 

The Fideuà is similar to seafood or fish rice, replacing the rice with the noodle. Legend tells that it was born when some fishermen from Gandía (Valencia, eastern Spain) wanted to make rice on the high seas and realized that they had forgotten it. Then they reached for what they had available to replace rice, specifically a packet of noodles. They liked it so much that they later repeated the dish on land, spreading it as a serious competitor to seafood rices.

You can make very simple fideuàs, with little fish or lot of shellfish, or spectacular and very expensive recipes with prawns, crayfish, monkfish, grouper etc, depending on the budget availability of the moment.

INGREDIENTS (4 people):

• One 250 gram (9 oz) package of 3 gauge noodles
• 1 red, sweet, or fresh onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 or 3 ripe tomatoes
• Sweet paprika (optional, if we don't have saffron)
• Various seafood (prawns, crayfish, mussels etc)
• Fish (monkfish, grouper etc)
• Squid rings
• Water or fish broth
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Saffron

First, pour a generous jet of extra virgin olive oil into a large saucepan. We put over medium heat and in it we lightly sauté the fish and shellfish available, the minimum so that it browns. We withdraw and reserve.

We make a sauce with the onion and garlic, minced very finely, frying it in the same oil where we have sautéed the seafood. It is advisable to remove the germ from the garlic to prevent it affect our stomachs. We salt slightly so that the onion sweats. When the onion is transparent and before it burns, add the peeled tomato, also very finely chopped, without seeds or skin. We will leave over low heat until the sofrito gets homogeneus (like a thick sauce).

Then sauté the noodles, although a much shorter time than used in rice dishes. That is, we pour them over the sauce and we give them a couple of turns without frying them. Heat the fish broth and when it boils, pour it over the sauce and the noodles. Remember that the water or broth to be incorporated must be twice the volume of the pasta used. That is, if we have a cup of noodles we will use two cups of broth. This is important because the fideuà must be wet but without broth (or really very little).

The moment to pour the broth is also to incorporate the spices if we have them, specifically the saffron and if we do not have, paprika (two or three strands of saffron or half a teaspoon of paprika).

We taste and rectify the salt if necessary. Unlike rice, pasta is not very critical about salt and we can correct it at any time - except if we overdo it, of course -. We go up to live fire. When we foresee that the pasta is going to be done, we add the shellfish and fish that together should not cook for more than five minutes.

It is served piping hot, accompanied by aioli sauce if you feel like it. It's really tasty. 

Some prefer to finish the fideuà in the oven at 180 degrees (356 F) for 5 to 10 minutes, but in principle it is not necessary unless it has still too much broth. The topic of the baked finish also occurs among rice paellas, especially in restaurants, but in general it is not necessary.

The fideuà is quite lax in terms of the ingredients to use, especially in relation to fish and shellfish, but it never incorporates any vegetables except for the stir-fry. No peas, no artichokes, no bell peppers.