Short toasted noodles cooked in a fish broth until they stand on end, monkfish and squid and prawns in the same wide pan — that is Gandia's answer to paella, and you drag the noodles through aioli. The aioli is not optional.
The dish is from the port of Gandia, on the Valencian coast, a twentieth-century invention of fishermen who cooked in a paella pan but used fideos. Toast the noodles in the oil before the stock goes in; after that, as with rice, you do not stir. The upright tips are how you know it is done.
Rest it three minutes. Serve from the pan, aioli passed separately. A dry white from Valencia, or Albariño. Do not decorate the plate with the aioli.
Method
- 01
Make a quick aioli first, so it's ready: crush 2 garlic cloves with a pinch of salt, beat in the egg yolk, then drip in 3 tablespoons of the oil until the sauce is thick and pale. Set it aside. Aioli on the side is not optional with fideuà; you'll drag the noodles through it. Don't decorate the plate with it — pass it separately.
- 02
Heat the remaining oil in a paella pan until it shimmers. Brown the monkfish and prawns on both sides, then lift them out. Fry the squid in the same oil, then add the grated tomato and remaining garlic and cook until the tomato darkens. Stir in the pimentón and saffron; you now have a sofrito that smells of the port, and that's the broth's beginning.
- 03
Add the fideos and toast them in the oil, stirring, for 2 minutes — they'll turn a shade darker and smell nutty. Pour in the hot stock, salt it, and shake the pan to level the noodles. Nestle the fish and prawns on top, and do not stir again — after the stock goes in, as with rice, you leave it alone.
- 04
Cook over medium-high heat until the noodles have drunk the stock and the tips begin to stand upright, 10 to 12 minutes. That upright trick is how you know it's done. Rest 3 minutes, then serve from the pan with the aioli passed separately. Drag the noodles through the aioli; that's the whole pleasure of it.
