Paella
Valencian rice dish cooked in a wide flat pan over fire. The original is chicken, rabbit, snails and beans, not seafood.
Paella started in the rice-growing wetlands of the Albufera, south of Valencia, as a midday meal cooked outdoors over orange-wood fire. The defining feature is the pan: wide, flat and shallow, which forces the rice into one thin layer so every grain finishes dry, separate and lightly toasted at the bottom (the socarrat). The original paella valenciana uses rabbit, chicken, snails, green beans and garrofó (a large white bean), in a base of tomato and sweet paprika. The seafood version, paella de marisco, came later. The all-black arròs negre uses squid ink. Outside Valencia the word gets used loosely for almost any rice cooked in a paella pan; in Valencia, the loose usage is a fighting matter.
How it's served
Straight from the pan to the table, with the rice still cracking at the bottom. Traditional restaurants spoon servings outward from the centre. Lemon wedges arrive on the side; in Valencia they're considered optional, in Catalonia and the seafood version they're standard.
Regional variation
Valencian purists hold that real paella means rabbit, chicken, snails and beans, full stop. Coastal cooks make seafood paella with prawns, monkfish and mussels. Catalan kitchens add their own variants: arròs negre (black rice with squid ink), arròs a banda (rice cooked in fish stock and served separately from the fish), arròs caldós (soupy rice). All are rice dishes; not all are technically paella.
- Origin
- Albufera region, Valencia, Spain
- Etymology
- From the Valencian-Catalan paella ('frying pan'), itself from the Latin patella.
- Also called
- paella valenciana, arroz a la paella
Where to try it in Barcelona
18 restaurants on Guidavera mention paella in their kitchen description.
- CruixEixample
- 7 PortesEl Born
- Can MajoBarceloneta
- CheriffBarceloneta
- DeliciasHorta-Guinardó
- DisbaratGràcia
- El Noi d'AlcoiSarrià-Sant Gervasi
- ElchePoble-sec
- L'Arrosseria Xativa GraciaGràcia
- La LonjaEixample
- La TavernetaGothic Quarter
- Maná 75Barceloneta
- Marisquería BalmesSarrià-Sant Gervasi
- MartínezPoble-sec
- Mirando al MarBarceloneta
- Platja Ca La NuriBarceloneta
- TritonPedralbes
- Xiringuito EscribaPoblenou
Frequently asked
What's the original paella?
Paella valenciana: rabbit, chicken, snails, green beans, garrofó beans, tomato, paprika, saffron, olive oil, water and rice, cooked in a wide pan over open fire. Seafood paella is a 20th-century coastal adaptation; the inland Valencian version came first.
Is paella always made with seafood?
No. The original Valencian version uses no seafood at all. Paella de marisco (seafood paella) and paella mixta (mixed meat and seafood) came later and are popular along the Mediterranean coast. Valencians generally consider paella mixta a tourist invention.
Why is paella cooked in a flat pan?
So the rice cooks in a single thin layer, finishes dry, and develops a toasted crust on the bottom. A deep pot would steam the rice and ruin the texture. The pan itself is called a paella; the dish takes its name from the vessel.
Related terms
- SocarratThe crackly, caramelized layer of rice stuck to the bottom of a paella pan. The bit most diners reach for first.
- FideuàA Valencian paella made with short, hollow noodles instead of rice. Comes with allioli on the side.
- AllioliPungent Catalan emulsion of garlic and olive oil. Traditionally no egg. Eaten with grilled meats, paella and fish.
- SofritoA slow-cooked base of onion, tomato and garlic in olive oil. The starting point for most Spanish rice dishes, stews and sauces.
- Arròs brutMallorcan 'dirty rice': a brothy rice stew with rabbit, chicken or game, sobrasada, vegetables and saffron. Winter staple, eaten in a deep bowl with a spoon.
- Arròs negreJet-black rice cooked paella-style in a wide flat pan with squid, cuttlefish and the squid's own ink. Served with allioli on the side.
- BogavanteEuropean lobster. Larger and sweeter than langosta (spiny lobster), used in Spanish rice dishes, paellas and grilled at high-end seafood restaurants.
- En su tintaCooked in its own ink. Used for squid, cuttlefish and baby cuttlefish, which turn the sauce jet black.
- NyoraSmall, round, sun-dried sweet red pepper. The defining ingredient in romesco and a backbone of many Catalan, Valencian and Murcian dishes.
- PicadaA pounded paste of nuts, garlic, parsley and sometimes fried bread, stirred into a Catalan stew at the end to thicken and finish it.
- RapeMonkfish. Firm-textured white fish with no small bones and a single central cartilage, used in Spanish suquet, paella, and grilled on the plancha.
- Suquet de peixA Catalan fisherman's stew of white fish and potatoes, thickened with an almond-garlic picada.