La Fideuà de Gandia is a traditional dish attributed to fishermen of Grao de Gandia, in Valencia province. More than a century old, La Fideuà has become one of the most emblematic dishes of Mediterranean cuisine.
From the sea to your table
The base with which we prepare a good Fideuá is using a good broth or “fumet” of fish and or seafood, and we do it using abundant amounts of a small size fish named, “morralla” and fresh seafood. From the sea to your table!
The origins
A dish with a seafood tradition
Back in the years 1912-1914, the “trawlers” went fishing from the Grau de Gandia around four in the morning, to return to port in the early hours of the afternoon with the fish to auction in in the market. This routine did not change throughout the year. So the boats went out at night and in the summer they returned at sunset, and in winter, they also returned at night.
In one of these boats, the “SANTA ISABEL,” with 6 sailors on board, it happened one day when it was time to prepare lunch, the cook wanted to impress the rest of the crew with his culinary skills by preparing a fantastic seafood paella. He very carefully removed some prawns and crawfish, chopped an anglerfish. He previously boiled all the fish to make a good broth in order to prepare a fantastic paella to share with his colleagues.
Lack of rice was a major setback, so he started to figure out how to solve the dilemma and what to do with all those ingredients. It occurred to him to chop some noodles and add it to the paella as if it were rice and treating it as such. He left the cooked pasta to dry as if it were the normal seafood paella he had set out to do, and he prepared to serve it to his companions. The change went well for the cook who surprised everyone pleasantly with such flavor of this invention.
