Valencia · Valencian Community · Spain
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Prep
25 min
Cook
35 min
Hands-on
50 min
On Valencia’s coast, fideuà is the noodle cousin of paella—short fideos toasted in seafood sofrito until they drink a saffron-tinted stock. Beach towns south of the city claim it with proprietary pride. Aioli on the side is nonnegotiable for many locals.
Toasted noodles simmer in a concentrated fish-and-shellfish broth with garlic, tomato, and paprika until the pan shows socarrat-like toasted bits. Shrimp and monkfish or similar firm fish stud the surface. The flavor is oceanic, garlicky, and gently smoky from pimentón.
Valencia, Spain
Valencia’s Albufera rice fields made paella famous, while nearby coastal kitchens popularized fideuà with pasta instead of rice. Mediterranean fish markets supply the day’s catch. Lunch remains the main hot meal under bright Levantine sun. Locally it is known as vermiĉelaĵo.
Fideuà is often traced to early twentieth-century coastal cooks around Gandia who swapped rice for noodles in a seafood paella-like pan. It spread along the Valencian coast as a distinct identity dish. Home and restaurant techniques still debate broth ratios and noodle thickness. It stands beside paella as a Levantine Spanish icon. Fideuà is a seafood dish originally from the coast of Valencia that is similar to paella, and even more so to arròs a banda, but with pasta noodles instead of rice. Its main ingredients are pasta noodles, fish, and shellfish. It is seasoned mainly with lemon. It belongs to the wider family of pasta dish and seafood dish.
Seaside restaurants from Valencia to Gandia; home paella pans on Sundays. Tourist menus offer mixed versions; purists watch noodle toast and stock strength. Fall and winter fish are prized for broth.
Fideuà delivers paella’s communal pan joy with noodles that catch seafood broth in every curl. Aioli adds garlic creaminess. The toasted bottom bits are treasure.
Valencian fideuà toasts short noodles in saffron seafood broth until the pan edges turn savory and crisp.
This video demonstrates the sourced recipe, so the shopping list and steps are intended to follow it.
Serves 2 as written; you're cooking for 4. Quantities are unchanged — either accept smaller portions or scale by about 2×. Scale ingredients by eye rather than strictly: eggs, leavening and seasoning don't scale linearly, and a fuller pan needs longer than the stated time.
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prawns
10
tomato
1
garlic
2 cloves
Spanish onion
¼
saffron
Pinch
salt
1 tsp
angel hair pasta
200 g
olive oil
150 ml
fish stock powder
½ tsp
fish stock cube
½ tsp
fideos
200 g
squid
1
sweet pimentón
½ tsp
Each column is a kitchen lane. Times sit on the activity; striped blocks are hands-off waits.
Workstream
1 · cook
Fry the pasta
5 minutes
<p>Heat about one-third of the olive oil in a wide frying pan over a medium heat. Add the dried pasta and fry for about 5 minutes, or until it turns golden. Remove from the pan and set aside.</p> <p>Add the rest of the olive oil to the pan, increase the heat and add the chopped squid and salt. Squid can be very temperamental as it releases a lot of water when you start cooking it so it tends to explode in the pan. It’s fair to say this bit is a tiny bit dangerous. I recommend you hold a pan lid over the pan, so that the steam can still escape, and stand back. Give it a quick stir, half cover with the lid and leave to cook for a couple more minutes. Don’t scrape the bottom of the pan, as that sticky layer on the bottom is essential for making a rich stock.</p> <p>When the squid has browned, add the peeled prawns, garlic and onion and cook for another 5 minutes until everything is dark golden (this will happen fairly quickly because of the high heat). Add the chopped tomato, saffron and pimentón and stir constantly to dissolve the sticky bits on the bottom. This should take no longer than 2 minutes.</p> <p>Add the fish stock powder or cube and 1 litre of water. Bring to the boil and let it simmer for about 10 minutes before adding the fried pasta. You need to use your judgement here – you need just enough water left in the pan for the pasta to cook and absorb all the remaining liquid. A good thin fideo pasta should cook in about 3 minutes. Stir in the pasta, cover the pan and cook until the liquid has been absorbed.</p> <p>Remove from the heat and leave for 1 more minute, uncovered, to create a toasted layer of pasta on the bottom of the pan – it will taste like heaven. Enjoy with a good dollop of alioli.</p> <p>Watch Omar make the dish:</p> <p><iframe title="Paella with Pasta (Fideuà) | Omar Allibhoy's Tapas Revolution" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fWrIrV96LoY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <div class="article__embed-code"></div>