Valencia · From the rice fields of the Albufera, 18th century

Paella de marisco

Name: Paella de marisco
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Valencia
Ingredients: 400 g bomba rice; 1.2 l fish stock, hot; 12 large prawns, 300 g squid, 500 g mussels or clams; 2 tomatoes grated, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 red pepper; A pinch of saffron, 1 teaspoon sweet paprika; 100 ml olive oil, salt, lemon wedges

Rice cooked flat in a wide pan over fire until the bottom crisps into socarrat, with prawns, squid and a broth that tastes of the sea. Spain’s Sunday in a pan.

Rich5

Umami8

Fresh5

Spice3

Sweet2

The wine

A cold Albariño or a Mallorcan white from Prensal; a young rosé works on the beach.

Paella takes its name from the pan, and the pan tells you everything: wide, shallow and made for fire, so that the rice cooks in a thin layer and the bottom caramelises into the socarrat that Valencians fight over. The original is from the Albufera lagoon and holds rabbit, chicken, beans and snails; the seafood version came with the tourists and the coast, and it is the one Mallorca and Málaga cook best.

On the islands paella is a lunch dish, never dinner, and it is at its finest cooked over vine cuttings and orange wood in the open air: at Sa Foradada below Deià, where the pans go on the fire while the boats anchor, or on the beach at the Baños del Carmen in Málaga with the sardines grilling beside it.

At home the rules are simple and absolute: bomba or senia rice, a real fish stock, saffron, a sofrito of tomato and garlic, no stirring once the broth is in, and a rest of five minutes under a cloth. Lemon on the side, never in the pan.

The home recipe · Serves 4

Ingredients

400 g bomba rice
1.2 l fish stock, hot
12 large prawns, 300 g squid, 500 g mussels or clams
2 tomatoes grated, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 red pepper
A pinch of saffron, 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
100 ml olive oil, salt, lemon wedges

Method

Fry the prawns briefly in olive oil in the paella pan and set aside; fry the squid and the pepper.
Add the garlic, grated tomato and paprika and cook to a thick sofrito.
Add the rice, stir for one minute to coat, then pour in the hot stock with the saffron.
Cook on high heat for eight minutes, then medium for ten; do not stir. Add the mussels and prawns on top for the last five minutes.
Listen for the crackle of the socarrat, rest under a cloth for five minutes and serve from the pan.