Seafood Paella: The Original Recipe

• Preparation time: 50 minutes
• Cooking time: 40 45-minute
• difficulty: Media

How to prepare seafood paella

It is definitely the Spanish dish most famous in the world. We're talking about paella, a culinary specialty so widespread in the Iberian Peninsula that in every city you can find just as many variationsLet's discover this dish through its history and then learn the recipe. After all, seafood paella is the ideal dish for these summer eveningsComing from the tradition of popular cuisine, paella is definitely a “don't waste” style dishIt was prepared by farmers working in the fields and rice paddies by gathering together all the ingredients they had available and any leftovers, from meat to fish to vegetables. A humble dish that also takes its name from the classic, very wide and shallow iron pan used to prepare it, it is a dish with many different variations, including Fideuà, which uses fideos, short, thin spaghetti, instead of rice.

Ingredients

• 600 g of rice
• 150 gr of squids
• 150g of cuttlefish
• 8 prawns
• 5 langoustines
• 300 grams of extra virgin olive oil
• Fish broth (as needed)
• 1 tablespoon red chili pepper
• 1 sweet pepper
• 8 tablespoons of tomato puree
• 1 clove of garlic
• Saffron (as needed)

Preparation

• Wash and cut the Cuttlefish and diced squid.
• Heat the oil in a standard paella pan or in a fairly large one, then add the prawns and scampi. Sauté for a few minutes, then remove from the heat and add the cuttlefish and calamari to the pan. Stir-fry.
• Add the tomato puree and minced garlic clove and cook. Add the sweet pepper, cut into strips, stir, then add the rice and fish stock and cook.
• After about 10 minutes, also add the saffron and the prawns and scampi. Cook, season with salt to taste, and serve the paella piping hot.

National

According to your taste, also add the mussels and black olives.

Types of paella

There are several types of paella. The most important are:

• Of seafood. Made from seafood, its origins are in the coastal areas of Spain.
• Valencian. Chicken, rabbit, with vegetables and greens are used.
• Mixed paellaOr Catalan-style, it features a mix of white meat and seafood, starting with calamari.
• Alghero paella. This is a paella made in Italy, well-known in Alghero, where this recipe originated in Sardinia. Chicken and sausage are also used, combined with vegetables and seafood.
• Black paella. Widespread in Catalonia and the Valencia area: it bears this name because it involves the use of cuttlefish which gives the dish its dark colour.
• Pasta paella or fideuà. Fideos, a round, thin pasta similar to spaghetti but shorter, are used as a substitute for rice.

Read also:

• Homemade fish sticks
• Vegetarian Lasagna: Two Quick Recipes
• Giardiniera Vegetables: The Recipe to Make It in an Hour