Fideuà – The Lesser-known Mediterranean Classic

Honestly, I hadn’t heard from fideuà until I came to live in Catalonia, where I first had it and instantly loved it!  Fideuà is a sort of paella’s cousin but made with noodles instead of rice.  As it happens with paella, there are endless recipes and variants and it’s also original from Valencia, but eaten all along the Spanish Mediterranean coast and definitely a Sunday and festive staple dish in Catalonia.

You’ll find vegetable, meat, chicken fideuà, but the most traditional is the seafood fideuà. Besides the seafood, the famous “fumet” (fish stock) and noodles are the basic ingredients. In Spain you can find fideuà noodles in any supermarket, but any short thin kind of hard wheat noodle will do the trick.  In the image bellow you’ll find the two most common kind of fideuà noodles. I prefer the thinner ones.

Here it is my humble approach to Fideuà, hope you enjoy it!

Fideuà

• Servings: 2
• Time: 60 minutes
• Difficulty: medium
• Print

Ingredients

• a dash of olive oil
• 4 shrimps
• 4 prawns
• 1 garlic clove, pressed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/4 red pepper, chopped
• 1/4 green pepper, chopped
• 1 tomato, grated
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• salt and pepper to taste
• 6 squid rings
• 200 g. noodles
• 1 liter fish stock (keep it warm)
• 2 tsp. pimentón dulce (sweet paprika)
• a pinch of saffron
• 6 clams
• 6 mussels

Preparation

1. Heat the oil in a shallow and wide pan and sauté the shrimps and prawns a few minutes over medium heat, remove from the pan and set aside.
2. In the same oil, sauté the garlic, onion and peppers until soft. Add the tomato and tomato paste and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Stir the squid rings and stir fry some minutes.
4. Continue by adding the noodles and sauté them continuously removing with a wooden spoon to let them absorb the juices until the mixture dries up a little.
5. At this point pour the warm stock in, season with pimentón (sweet paprika) and saffron and stir to combine.
6. Place the shrimps, prawns, mussels and clams evenly in the pan.
7. Let it cook without removing around 30 minutes (the noodles have to be cooked and the stock almost completely consumed, it is meant to be juicy but not soupy).
8. Serve hot and enjoy! (serve with alioli sauce if desired).

Filed under: Mediterranean, Other than Soup, Spanish Tagged: clams, clean eating, fish stock, healthy food, low fat, mussels, noodles, prawns, seafood, shrimps, squid rings, whole food