Paella With Seafood

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.