Spanish Cuisine #4: Fideuà

Though is obviously less celebrated than the famous paella, I must admit that this dish fascinated me more than its most famous "colleague". Of course, as an Italian quite fond of the traditional spaghetti, I was quite shocked to see one of my favourite kinds of pasta reduced to that sort of minor version, which I usually associate to tasteless broth dishes eaten quite unwillingly in my childhood. Nevertheless, after tasting it I found it really delicious, and soon wanted to try and prepare it myself (though with doubtful results).

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According to the tradition, fideuà is a typical recipe from the Valencian area (to be precise, from the coastal village of Gandia). Actually, this attribution is a bit less certain than that of paella, as there are also some Catalan claims about its origins. Anyway, whatever its origins, it can be said that fideuà is basically a recipe quite similar to paella, in which the rice is replaced by the fideos, a sort of short and thin spaghetti. And this fact is probably connected to the origins of this dish, as it is believed that it was first prepared by some sailors who, finding that they had no more rice in the boat to prepare paella, tried and arrange an alternative version with fideos.

Time to get down to work, at last. Here are the ingredients which you will need to prepare a good fideua. Don't be impressed by the quantity of things required, you may also try and prepare a more basic version (as I did).

Ingredients: Fideos, fish stock, squids, prawns, clams/mussels, garlic, 1 onion, 1 tomato, salt, lemon, saffron.

Ingredients for salsa allioli: 2 eggs, a clove of garlic, olive oil.

Time of preparation: 30 minutes

Difficult: Medium

Cooking: 10 minutes (the sauté), 10 minutes (the fideuà)

First of all, you will need a good fish stock as the basis of the dish. It should be obtained from fresh fish, but it is also possible to buy it in the supermarket. Anyway, the following step is preparing the sauté: ground the onion and the garlic, grate the tomato and leave them in a frying pan over low heat for a few minutes. Then add the prawns, so that they become of a darker colour, and finally the squids and mussels or clams.

When the sauté is finally ready, pour the fish stock in the frying pan and add the fideos and the saffron (which is optional), leaving them on the heat until they start gilding. Then turn off the heat and allow the dish some minutes to rest. Fideuà is usually served with some lemon juice and salsa allioli, which I found the perfect complement for this delicious dish.

As for the salsa allioli, which I have already described when dealing with patatas bravas, the procedure will be quite similar to the preparation of salsa mayonnaise. After grinding the eggs and the garlic together in the mixer, stir the mixture and add gradually and carefully olive oil, without stopping stirring. Again, the result should be a dense sauce.

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