Paella valenciana
Rice cooked in a thin layer in a wide, shallow pan with chicken, rabbit, flat green beans, butter beans and saffron.
What makes it paella valenciana
- A wide, flat paella pan and a thin layer of rice.
- Short-grain rice — bomba or senia — never stirred once the stock goes in.
- Saffron, and a crust, the socarrat, on the bottom.
Where it comes from
Rice has grown in the wetlands around Valencia since Moorish times. Paella began as a country dish, cooked outdoors over a wood fire — often orange or vine prunings — by farm workers with what was to hand: rabbit, chicken, beans, sometimes snails.
The name is the pan, from the Latin patella. It's still a Sunday lunch, often cooked by the men of the family, and Valencians hold that it's eaten from the pan and never made with chorizo.
How it varies
- Paella de marisco
- Seafood in place of meat, on the coast — prawns, mussels, squid.
- Arròs negre
- Rice black with squid ink, served with alioli.
- Arroz a banda
- Rice cooked in a strong fish stock, the fish eaten separately.
Be the first here
Start your own paella valencianaNo one here has made paella valenciana yet. Start it as v1, and every version after is an experiment the next cook can learn from.
Near it
ItalianRisotto alla milaneseRice cooked slowly in stock with saffron and beef marrow, then beaten with butter and parmesan until golden and flowing.No one here has made it yet
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