Active Time

　　25 minutes

　　Total Time

　　45 minutes

　　This classic Valencian paella recipe (arroz a la marinera), from cookbook author and food historian Claudia Roden, makes a celebratory seafood paella full of shellfish and flavored with saffron and paprika. Like most traditional paellas, it starts with a sofrito—a flavorful sauté of onion, garlic, tomato, and other seasonings—and is made with short-grain rice. If you can find bomba rice (a Spanish variety), use it; otherwise, look for carnaroli or arborio rice (Italian varieties with a similar texture). 

　　While this version calls for shrimp, squid, and mussels, paella Valenciana is a flexible dish. You could swap in other seafood, such as scallops or clams, or add diced vegetables like green beans, artichokes, or red bell peppers. Paella ingredients vary from place to place in Spain—Roden notes that cooks in many parts of the country add meat to their seafood paellas (chorizo or chicken thighs are popular additions, as are pork, rabbit, snails, or duck sausages). Once you get comfortable with the base recipe, this is a rice dish you can play with.

　　The key to making an authentic paella, with the coveted crispy layer of rice on the bottom of the pan known as socarrat, is to use a proper paellera (a paella pan), but you can make do with a similar large skillet or carbon-steel pan. If the pan you’re using is too big to fit on a single burner, cook the paella over two burners, rotating the pan every few minutes to distribute the heat evenly.

　　This recipe was adapted from ‘The Food of Spain’ by Claudia Roden. Buy the full book on Amazon.

　　

Ingredients

4 servings

　　5 Tbsp. olive oil

　　1 large onion, finely chopped

　　2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste or finely chopped

　　2 tomatoes, peeled and chopped

　　½ tsp. sugar

　　Kosher salt

　　1 tsp. pimentón dulce (or sweet paprika)

　　A good pinch of saffron threads

　　4 cleaned small squid, bodies sliced into ¼-inch-wide rings, tentacles left whole

　　2 cups medium-grain Spanish paella rice or risotto rice, such as Arborio or Carnaroli

　　3 cups fish or chicken stock, plus more if needed

　　1 cup dry white wine

　　12 jumbo shrimp in their shells, deveined

　　16 mussels, scrubbed and debearded

　　Lemon wedges and chopped parsley (for garnish, optional)

　　

Step 1

Pour the oil into a 16-inch paella pan set over medium-high heat. Fry the onion until soft, stirring often. Stir in the garlic, and before it begins to color, add the tomatoes. Add the sugar, pimentón (or paprika), saffron, and salt to taste, stir well, and cook until the tomatoes are reduced to a jammy sauce and the oil is sizzling. Add the squid and cook, stirring, for a minute or so. Add the rice and stir well until all the grains are coated. (You can prepare the dish to this point up to an hour in advance.)

　　

Step 2

Bring the stock and wine to a boil in a saucepan. Pour over the rice, bring to a boil, and add salt to taste (even if the broth tastes a bit salty, it will not be salty when it is absorbed by the rice). Stir well and spread the rice out evenly in the pan (do not stir again). Cook the rice over low heat for 10 minutes, moving the pan around and rotating it so that the rice cooks evenly. Lay the shrimp on top and cook an additional 8 to 10 minutes, turning the shrimp when they have become pink on the first side. Add a little more hot stock toward the end if the rice seems too dry and you hear crackly frying noises before it is done. When the rice is done, turn off the heat and cover the pan with a large piece of foil.

　　

Step 3

Bring ½-inch water to a simmer in a saucepan with a tight-fitting lid. Add the mussels and steam, checking every 3 to 5 minutes. As soon as they open, they are cooked. Throw away any that do not open after 10 minutes. Arrange the mussels on top of the paella. Garnish with chopped parsley and lemon wedges for squeezing, if using.

　　Editor’s note: This recipe first appeared on Epicurious in June 2011. Head this way for more of our best rice recipes →

　　Reprinted with permission from The Food of Spain by Claudia Roden, © 2011 Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers. Buy the full book on Amazon or Bookshop.