FIDEUA OR ROSSEJAT DE FIDEUS - ANGEL HAIR PASTA WITH SEAFOOD

This recipe is my adaptation of a recipe from the restaurant 'Can Jubany' in Catalonia. The restaurant and its chef, Nandu Jubany, received a Michelin star in 1998. He has since opened many other restaurants all over Catalonia, Andorra and two in Singapore.
Fideuá or Rossejat de fideus is a traditional recipe that started in Valencia. The invention of fideuà is attributed to a picturesque story. Click here if you are interested to learn about it.
This is really comfort food, and it can be done using only a rich fish stock, or you can add some seafood and small pieces of fish fillets. The different recipes are abundant.

INGREDIENTS
Fumet (fish stock)
800g prawn heads and skins (reserve the prawns for later)
1 small snapper (600g) or other whole fish or fish heads, cleaned and gutted 
4 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1 onion
1 leek, white part only
2 sticks of celery
1 branch of fennel leaves
4 branches of parsley
400g passata
30g tomato paste (optional)
olive oil
4l water or fish stock (I had some stock frozen from cooking octopus and used that to give it even more flavour. I also like the stock left from cooking mussels with some white wine in a covered pot and sometimes freeze it to be used another time with seafood risotto.)

Picada
1 garlic clove
1 branch of parsley
1 slice of bread, fried
20 saffron stems
1 tsp sweet paprika

Rossejat
500g angel hair pasta
800g fresh prawn tails
Picada
Fumet
Allioli (see the real recipe with video here)

METHOD
Cut the vegetables into large pieces.



Put a bit of oil in a large saucepan. Add the garlic and cook until lightly golden.

Add the vegetables and cook, stirring until they start to caramelise, about 5-8 minutes.

 

Add the tomato passata and cook for about 5 more minutes.

Cut the fish in half, or in small pieces if it is too big.

Add the fish and the prawn heads and skins to the saucepan. 

Add the water or stock and the tomato paste, if using and bring to the boil.

Turn down the heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Cool for about 5 minutes and using a hand-held blender, blend all ingredients.

Get a large, clean bowl and put the stock through a fine sieve and using a wooden spoon, extract as much liquid as you can. Discard the solids.

Put the stock back into the saucepan and bring it to the boil. Reserve.

Make the picada. Put a bit of salt at the bottom of a mortar and add the garlic, cut into small pieces, the parsley leaves, the saffron and the paprika. Mash until it turns into a paste.

Add the fried bread, cut into small pieces and mash again until you have a paste. Fill the mortar with some of the stock and reserve.
Preheat the oven grill to 200°C.

If you have a 'paella' dish, put the dish in the wok burner of your stove. Otherwise, you will need a very large frypan.
Add a bit of oil and fry the prawn tails for about 1 minute each side. Don't overcook them.

Remove from the pan and set apart.

Add the angel hair pasta to the pan (adding some more oil if necessary) and toast the pasta until lightly golden, stirring continuously, making sure it doesn't burn.

Add the prawns to the pan, and after, the boiling stock, using a ladle, until the pasta is covered.

Cook at a high temperature for about 7 minutes, then add the picada mix to the pan and mix it carefully.

Cook in the preheated oven grill for another 7 minutes or until the pasta looks cooked and the liquid has been absorbed.
Make the allioli while the pasta is in the oven.

Serve with the allioli and some lemon wedges if you like.

Serves 4 as a main or 6 as an entrée.