Fideuà de Gandía

Ingredients

• 400 g fideo noodles, number 4 gauge
• 400 g monkfish tail, cut into 3 cm chunks
• 300 g whole raw prawns
• 250 g cuttlefish, cleaned and diced
• 1.2 litres hot fish stock
• 100 ml extra virgin olive oil
• 200 g ripe tomatoes, coarsely grated
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tsp sweet pimentón
• 1 generous pinch saffron threads
• Salt
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges
• 4 tbsp allioli, to serve

Before you cook

• Peel the prawns and keep the heads and shells for the stock, setting the peeled tails aside.
• Cut the monkfish off the bone into chunks and dice the cuttlefish.
• Grate the tomatoes and discard the skins.
• Toast the saffron threads in a dry pan for twenty seconds, then crush them and stir them into a ladle of hot stock.
• Heat the oven to 220C if you want the traditional final blast.

Steps

1. Heat the olive oil in a 40 cm paella pan over medium-high heat.
2. Fry the prawn heads and shells for three minutes, pressing them with a spoon to release their juices, then lift them out and discard them.
3. Add the diced cuttlefish to the flavoured oil and fry it for five minutes until the edges catch.
4. Add the chopped garlic and stir for thirty seconds until it smells sweet.
5. Stir in the grated tomato and cook for eight minutes, until the sofrito is dark and the oil separates.
6. Pull the pan off the heat, stir in the pimentón so it does not burn, then return the pan to the heat.
7. Tip in the fideo noodles and stir them through the sofrito for two minutes so every noodle is coated and lightly toasted.
8. Pour in the hot stock along with the saffron liquid and spread the noodles into an even layer.
9. Season the stock now, tasting it and adding salt until it is slightly saltier than you would drink.
10. Boil hard for five minutes without stirring, then tuck in the monkfish chunks and the peeled prawns.
11. Lower the heat and cook for another five minutes, until the liquid has gone and the noodle tips have risen and stand upright.
12. Slide the pan into the hot oven for three minutes, or raise the heat for one minute, to crisp the base.
13. Rest the fideuà off the heat for five minutes covered with a clean cloth.
14. Serve straight from the pan with lemon wedges and a bowl of allioli.