Pasta Paella is actually a “Fideuá” in Spain. In the gastronomy of the Valencian community, there are two different dishes made in a paella pan as its symbol: paella, and fideuá.
Here you have one of those finger-licking recipes, a fideuá made with squid and prawns/shrimps. Originally, paella made with pasta was a seafood dish and so it is nowadays, despite you can find meat-based ones.
The traditional fideuá is like the classic seafood paella, but with some special thin noodles instead of rice. It is also made in a paella, the flat paella pan that gives its name to the stews prepared there.
The secret for a good fideuá is “fumet” or homemade fish and/or seafood broth whenever possible.
Fideua origin
Tradition says it was the cook of one of the fishing boats that worked along the Valencian the inventor.
He wanted to create a less appetizing dish than the traditional seafood paella he usually cooked on the boat, to avoid the skipper leaving many of the sailors without their ration. Then, he substituted the rice with thin Spanish noodles.
However, the result was enchanting, and this pasta dish got very popular firstly in eastern Spain and lately in the rest of the country.
There is another branch of this story that says the cook forgot the rice and just add in “fideos”, this short and thin noodles, so, paella pasta was created by a chance.
I’ve read in many websites that fideuá is from Catalonia (Catalunya), which is completly false. Fideuá is originary from Gandia (Valencian Community)
How to cook pasta paella
🥘 Difficulty: Easy 🥘 Servings: 4 🥘 Nutrition: 400 Kcal 🥘 Cuisine: Spanish 🥘 Category: Main
🥘Prep time: 25′ 🥘 Cooking time: 20′
Ingredients
- 400g (2 cups) Thin and short Spanish noodles
- 225g (1/2 pound) swordfish / tuna / monkfish / lobster
- 400g (0.9 lbs) Cuttlefish or Squid
- 8 Shrimps or Prawns
- 1 each red bell pepper diced or chopped
- 2 Garlic cloves
- 2 small onions
- 200g (1 cup) grated tomato
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 carrot
- Bunch of fresh parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon Saffron threads
- 1 tbs Extra virgin olive oil
- 800g (3 1/2 cups) Fish or seafood stock (instead of water)
Fideua instructions
The preparation of this recipe is very similar to seafood paella, in fact, it is usually prepared in the same type of container, the paella pan. Furthermore, the process is 85% the same that a seafood paella’s one.
It is a dish of Spanish thin noodles, originally accompanied by fish and seafood and this is the traditional style, but nowadays it can be prepared with almost any type of ingredient.
We will prepare the seafood broth in advance and later the paella.
Time Needed : 45 minutes
Firstly, the stock. Peel the prawns and reserve its meat.
With the heads and skins, we will prepare the stock that we will then use to finish the dish.
Cut the tomatoes, carrot, some parsley, 1 onion, and garlic into few pieces.
Add them to a casserole with water. Let it boil for 15 min
Smash the heads and skins and pour everything to a casserole
Let it boil. We will reserve it until the time of use.
Now it is time for the paella.
Peel and finely chop the parsley, garlic, and onion
In a paella pan heat a dash of olive oil (medium-high heat)
Add the chopped vegetables
Let the vegetables brown for a few minutes
Sauté (medium-low heating)
Wash the peppers and chop them into small pieces
When the onion starts to brown, add them to the paella pan and sauté with the rest of the vegetables for 7 or 8 minutes. I usually like to lower the heat to extract everything from the vegetables.
Wash and chop the squid and the chosen fish.
In the meantime, the vegetables are being made
Add them to the paella pan and sauté with the rest of the vegetables.
Sauté
Pour the grated tomato
Stir and sauté
It’s time to add in the noodles
Sauté for a couple of minutes, it will avoid overcooking for a while after the pasta cooking time ends
Then, we pour in the stock that we have reserved (it should be warm)
Strained, to avoid pouring to the stew rests of the skins of the prawns.
Add salt and a few strands of saffron and season with salt and pepper.
Let it cook for about 10 minutes of medium heat once it starts boiling. The cooking time will depend on pasta type
Add the peeled prawns that we reserved
Continue cooking until the pasta is ready.
If we see that we need a little more stock we can add it
Until the noodles are tender.
In a moment, we can enjoy a complete dish that could perfectly serve as a single dish
Enjoy the Pasta Paella Recipe Seafood
Pro tip for paella pasta: Once the stock is boiling, it’s just a matter of allowing as many minutes as the chosen pasta needs to be made. If we sauté the pasta, it can boil a bit more without overcooking
Fideo pasta paella
Pro tip: Best fideua chefs say noodles have to be thin, as they are just the flavor transporter from the paella pan to the mouth
As a result, we will have a fish or seafood dish accompanied by a very tasty pasta, that will surely surprise those who do not know it. That’s it first for its great taste and then for the simplicity of its preparation.
If you like it, you will love authentic seafood paella
Fideuá pronunciation
“Fideuà” is not a Spanish word but Valencian, however, the way it is pronounced is very similar to Spanish. So, you can pronounce fideuá in Spanish the same way.
Then, how to pronounce fideuá?
IPA
/fideˈwa/, [fiðeˈwa]
You might want to know the right paella pronunciation too.
It´s a nice recipe.
Tomorrow ill try to do this with the foods that I´ve got.
As I have no paella pan Ill make it in a regular pan.
I’ll show the result.