During the Christmas holiday season, my wife and I enjoyed an excellent dinner at Café Madrid restaurant. One of the dishes we especially liked was called fideuà. It’s a Spanish dish that uses fideo – vermicelli-style pasta cut into short pieces.

This is my take on the seafood fideuà, which is sort of like Spanish paella, but made with fideo pasta rather than rice.

Ingredients:

3 Tbs. olive oil
1 package fideo (200g/7 oz)
½ small onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
4 oz. firm fish, such as cod, cut into bite-size pieces
12 bay scallops
2 cups seafood broth (chicken or vegetable broth may be substituted)
12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
½ cup diced tomato
Pinch of saffron
½ tsp. smoked paprika
12 black mussels
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Heat 2 Tbs. olive oil in a wide skillet over medium heat. Add the fideo and fry until golden-brown, about 5 minutes.

Remove the fideo from the pan for later use.
Add the remain Tbs. olive oil to the pan and increase heat to medium-high.
Add the onion, garlic, fish and scallops to the hot pan and sauté briefly, until lightly browned.

Pour the broth into the pan, along with the tomatoes, shrimp, saffron and paprika. Stir to mix well.

Bring to a simmer and cook until the shrimp is light pink.
Add the fideo back to the pan, stir, and tuck the mussels into the mixture.
Cook over medium heat until most of the broth is absorbed and the mussels open.

Add a little extra broth or water if the mixture gets too dry.
Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
Serve with a dry Spanish white wine such as Albariño.

Photos by Ted Scheffler.