Fideus without allioli in the end is something like sex with a condom, with the significant difference that the maximum risk you take with allioli, is … indigestion!
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 6 € pp)
- Salt
- 320 g fideus
- 2 tbsp already made sofregit
- 2 garlic cloves cut in slices
- 1,5 liter of fish stock
- EV sunflower oil
- EV olive oil
- 1 can whole tomatoes
- 500 g clams or other type of shells
- 120 g fresh thin green beans
- Coarse black pepper
- Allioli sauce
The Spanish cooks make their thin and long pasta with a completely different technique, compared to the Italian ones. The fideus (or fideos), as these pastas are called, are first fried or roasted in the oven and then slowly boiled in stock.
The Spanish fideus are not as thin as the Italian ones. Practically they are spaghetti or spaghettini about 3 cm long. There is no reason, however, to search for a Spanish brand of pasta. It´s more easy to replace it.
So, we can simply buy common spaghetti or spaghettini, break them by hand in 6, then wrap them in a large and relatively thick towel and smash them into smaller pieces by hitting the towel hardly for 30 to 50 times on a marble or another flat hard surface. We check the size of our pasta and we stop when we reach the desired length.
Before starting the preparation, we check in the freezer if we have:
a) already made sofregit (as we always have to do). If not, we can find how to substitute it HERE
b) already home made stock. If we don´t have, we prepare a fast one (court bouillon), or we use plain water, but we NEVER, EVER, EVER use the rubbish, called already made stocks. We heat the stock and we lightly salt it.
Then we prepare the clams, putting them in a covered casserole with a small amount of water in order to provoke the opening of their shells. We keep them warm.
Let´s start ………
We heat a little sunflower oil in a large pan and we toss the broken pasta, turning it constantly to cover it with oil (it does not take much time, just 1 or 2 mins), until they get a dark beige color, being careful so that it does not get burnt. Instead of the pan, we can also roast the pasta lightly covered with oil in a 180o C degree oven for about 10 mins.
This point is the most important in the process of making the fideus. The correct roasting of the fideus is what differentiates the dish from the corresponding Italian dishes.
We then add to the pan the sofregit, the garlic and the wet part of the tomatoes in can (we keep the solid parts for a sauce) and when the preparation starts to thicken, we dilute it with stock. We let it boil, CONTINUOUSLY ADDING stock, until the pasta is ready. The cooking times listed on the pasta packages are less than indicative, as the way they are prepared is completely different from that of ordinary pasta.
When the fideus are ready (we stop them in the al dente point, like the spaghetti), we put them in a big utensil and we add the clams and the green beans, which we have already cooked and kept warm.
Finally we add some allioli, we mix and we enjoy.
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