The fideuà is a traditional Spanish dish from the east part of the country and you can taste it at the Sal Café Restaurant. It is a specialty based on noodles and is prepared in a similar way to seafood paella, but with some differences that make this dish a staple in Mediterranean cuisine.
At Sal Café, we prepare fideuà with clams, prawns and alioli, a traditional combination of the tastiest seafood that gives the pasta a sea flavor. How to prepare a good fideuà? Let’s learn about its origin and secrets.
What is the origin of the fideuà?
The chronicles (and gastronomic legends) place the origin of the fideuà to an incident between sailors that took place in Gandía in the 30’s. The captain of a boat called Zábalo used to love eating rice so much there was a risk of shortage on board. To prevent this from happening, the boat chef decided one day to change rice for noodles. The new dish spread enough to satisfy the hunger of other sailors as well.
The fame of this new dish, which was named fideuà, spread rapidly through the Balearic Islands and, subsequently, to the entire Mediterranean coast until it became one of the most demanded dishes today.
Fideuà with clams, prawns and alioli. Photo: Sal Café Restaurant
The ingredients of a good seafood fideuà
The base of the fideuà are the thick noodles accompanied by fish and shellfish, mainly sepia, monkfish, squid or any rock fish. Prawns, mussels or crayfish are the perfect components to balance the flavor.
All these ingredients are cooked with a broth made of fish, tomato sauce and a pepper called fumet. It is all cooked on low heat in a wide flat metal pan called paella. The alioli, a very typical sauce of the Valencian Community, is an option that gives it an intense flavor. While tastes differ, the result of this dish reaches culinary perfection.
Like any good food, the seafood fideuà has its secrets and the chefs of the Sal Café Restaurant won’t share them with us. Instead, we do invite you to enjoy them us on our terrace.
Would you like to try the fideuà at the Barceloneta beach?
