Valencian Noodle Paella (Fideuà)
Thin toasted noodles simmered in a saffron-and-paprika fish stock with prawns, monkfish, squid and mussels, cooked paella-style in a wide shallow pan until the bottom turns deliciously crisp. Serve with a spoon of alioli and a wedge of lemon.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Peel the prawns
Peel the prawns, keeping the shells and heads. If your fish stock is store-bought, simmer it for 10 minutes with the prawn shells and heads to deepen the flavor, then strain and keep it hot on the back of the stove. A hot stock is essential: adding cold stock later would stop the cooking and ruin the texture of the noodles.
- 300 g prawns
- 1 litre fish stock
✅ Done when: the stock smells deeply of the sea and is kept at a bare simmer
Sear the seafood
In a wide, shallow paella pan (about 36–40 cm), heat half the olive oil over high heat. Sear the prawns for 1 minute per side until just pink, then the monkfish for 2 minutes, then the squid for 1 minute. Remove each batch to a plate as it's done; they will finish cooking later.
- 40 ml olive oil
- 300 g prawns (peeled)
- 250 g monkfish or hake
- 200 g squid
✅ Done when: the prawns are pink and the squid has firmed up and taken a little color
Make the sofrito
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Toast the noodles
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Simmer without stirring
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Build the socarrat
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Peel the prawns
Peel the prawns, keeping the shells and heads. If your fish stock is store-bought, simmer it for 10 minutes with the prawn shells and heads to deepen the flavor, then strain and keep it hot on the back of the stove. A hot stock is essential: adding cold stock later would stop the cooking and ruin the texture of the noodles.
- 300 g prawns
- 1 litre fish stock
✅ Done when: the stock smells deeply of the sea and is kept at a bare simmer
Sear the seafood
In a wide, shallow paella pan (about 36–40 cm), heat half the olive oil over high heat. Sear the prawns for 1 minute per side until just pink, then the monkfish for 2 minutes, then the squid for 1 minute. Remove each batch to a plate as it's done; they will finish cooking later.
- 40 ml olive oil
- 300 g prawns (peeled)
- 250 g monkfish or hake
- 200 g squid
✅ Done when: the prawns are pink and the squid has firmed up and taken a little color
Make the sofrito
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Toast the noodles
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Simmer without stirring
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Build the socarrat
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The Story Behind the Dish
Fideuà is often said to have been born on a fishing boat near Gandía, when a cook ran short of rice and used thin noodles instead to feed the crew. Whatever its exact origin, it grew out of the same fishermen's kitchens that gave Valencia its rice-based paellas, swapping grain for pasta while keeping the same wide shallow pan and the same patient, unstirred cooking.
It spread along the Valencian coast through beachside restaurants and family Sundays, and today it stands alongside paella as one of the region's proudest dishes, equally at home in a simple family kitchen and in award-winning restaurants.
⭐ Why It's Famous
It delivers all the saffron-and-seafood flavor of a Valencian paella in a lighter, noodle-based form, finished with the same prized crisp socarrat at the bottom of the pan.
💡 Fun Fact
Unlike paella, fideuà is traditionally eaten with a spoon so that no noodle, drop of broth or bit of socarrat is left behind.
Gandía, on the coast of Valencia
38.97°N, -0.18°W
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