Seafood Paella
Spain's great sharing dish — saffron-gold rice cooked in a wide pan with a rich seafood stock, crowned with prawns, mussels and squid. The prize is the socarrat: the caramelised, crackling layer of rice at the bottom of the pan.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Infuse the saffron
Crumble the saffron into 100ml of the hot stock and leave to steep. Keep the rest of the stock hot on a back burner — adding cold stock later would stop the rice cooking evenly.
Sear the seafood
Heat the olive oil in a 34–38cm paella pan over medium-high heat. Sear the prawns for 1 minute per side until just pink, then remove and set aside. Add the squid and cook for 2 minutes.
Make the sofrito
Add the red pepper and cook for 4 minutes until soft. Stir in the garlic for 30 seconds, then the grated tomato and paprika. Cook, stirring, until the tomato darkens and thickens into a jammy paste, about 6 minutes. This sofrito is the flavour base of the whole dish.
Add rice and stock
Scatter the rice across the pan and stir for 1 minute to coat in the sofrito. Pour in all the stock and the saffron liquid, season with salt, and give one final stir to spread the rice evenly. From now on, do not stir.
Simmer undisturbed
Cook on a lively simmer for 10 minutes, rotating the pan if your burner is smaller than the pan. Press the mussels into the rice, hinge-side down, then lower the heat and cook for 8 more minutes until the liquid is absorbed. Lay the prawns on top for the final 3 minutes.
Create the socarrat and rest
Turn the heat up high for 60–90 seconds. Listen for a gentle crackle and smell for toasting (not burning) — that's the socarrat forming. Remove from the heat, cover with a clean cloth and rest for 5 minutes. Discard any mussels that haven't opened, scatter with parsley and serve with lemon.
Infuse the saffron
Crumble the saffron into 100ml of the hot stock and leave to steep. Keep the rest of the stock hot on a back burner — adding cold stock later would stop the rice cooking evenly.
Sear the seafood
Heat the olive oil in a 34–38cm paella pan over medium-high heat. Sear the prawns for 1 minute per side until just pink, then remove and set aside. Add the squid and cook for 2 minutes.
Make the sofrito
Add the red pepper and cook for 4 minutes until soft. Stir in the garlic for 30 seconds, then the grated tomato and paprika. Cook, stirring, until the tomato darkens and thickens into a jammy paste, about 6 minutes. This sofrito is the flavour base of the whole dish.
Add rice and stock
Scatter the rice across the pan and stir for 1 minute to coat in the sofrito. Pour in all the stock and the saffron liquid, season with salt, and give one final stir to spread the rice evenly. From now on, do not stir.
Simmer undisturbed
Cook on a lively simmer for 10 minutes, rotating the pan if your burner is smaller than the pan. Press the mussels into the rice, hinge-side down, then lower the heat and cook for 8 more minutes until the liquid is absorbed. Lay the prawns on top for the final 3 minutes.
Create the socarrat and rest
Turn the heat up high for 60–90 seconds. Listen for a gentle crackle and smell for toasting (not burning) — that's the socarrat forming. Remove from the heat, cover with a clean cloth and rest for 5 minutes. Discard any mussels that haven't opened, scatter with parsley and serve with lemon.
The Story Behind the Dish
Rice has been grown around Valencia's Albufera lagoon since the Moorish period, and it was there, among farmworkers cooking over orange-wood fires, that paella took shape in the 19th century. The name comes from the pan itself — 'paella' is the Valencian word for the wide, shallow, two-handled pan, from the Latin patella.
The original Paella Valenciana was a countryside dish of rice, chicken, rabbit, green beans and butter beans. Along the coast, fishing communities made their own version with whatever the boats brought in, and paella de marisco — seafood paella — was born.
In the 20th century, tourism carried paella far beyond Valencia, and the seafood version in particular became a symbol of Spanish cooking around the world.
⭐ Why It's Famous
Paella is a social ritual as much as a recipe — traditionally cooked outdoors on Sundays and eaten straight from the pan, each person working inward from their own edge.
💡 Fun Fact
In Valencia, the crispy layer of toasted rice at the bottom — the socarrat — is so prized that diners scrape the pan clean for it. A paella without socarrat is considered unfinished.
Valencia, Spain
39.47°N, -0.38°W
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