Our Easy Paella Recipe (recipe on the site) covers the classic rice version, but fideuà brings the same seafood-and-saffron mood with a different personality, built on short toasted noodles instead of rice. Legend has it a boat cook in Gandía, on the Valencian coast, invented it when he ran out of rice, and whether or not that story is true, the dish is a fine example of improvisation turning out better than the original.

The noodles get toasted in oil before anything else touches the pan, which sounds like a small detail but it is the whole point: it gives the finished dish a nutty, almost caramelized backbone that plain boiled pasta could never have. Then it cooks down in a saffron-and-seafood broth exactly like paella does, letting the bottom layer crisp up into its own little prize, the noodle version of socarrat.

Serve it with a spoon of aioli stirred in at the table, the way they do along the Valencian coast, and pretend for twenty minutes that you are eating lunch at a beachside chiringuito instead of at your own kitchen table on a Tuesday.

Fideuà Recipe

What you need

Ingredients

8 oz fideos noodles (short vermicelli, about 2 inches long), or regular vermicelli broken into 2-inch pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined, shells reserved
1/2 lb squid, cleaned and cut into rings
1/2 lb littleneck clams or mussels, scrubbed
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium tomatoes, grated (skins discarded), or 1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
Pinch of saffron threads, crumbled
4 cups seafood or fish stock, warmed (use shrimp shells to make a quick stock if you have time)
Salt and black pepper, to taste
Lemon wedges, for serving
Store-bought or homemade aioli, for serving

Cook along

Instructions

Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a wide, shallow paella pan or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the noodles and toast, stirring often, for 3 to 4 minutes, until golden brown all over. Remove and set aside.
Add the remaining olive oil to the pan. Season the shrimp and squid lightly with salt and sear for 1 to 2 minutes, just to color, then remove and set aside.
In the same pan, add the onion and bell pepper and cook for 5 to 6 minutes, until softened.
Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute, then stir in the grated tomato, smoked paprika, and saffron. Cook for 5 minutes, until the tomato has darkened and thickened.
Pour in the warm stock and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
Scatter the toasted noodles evenly over the pan. Do not stir once they go in; like paella rice, fideuà noodles are left alone to absorb the liquid and develop a crisp bottom.
Nestle the clams into the noodles, cover loosely with foil, and simmer for 8 minutes.
Uncover, add the shrimp and squid back to the pan, and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes, until the noodles have absorbed most of the liquid, the clams have opened, and the seafood is cooked through. Discard any clams that do not open.
Let rest for 3 minutes off heat. Serve straight from the pan with lemon wedges and a spoon of aioli stirred into each portion.