Black ink “noodle paella” with calamari, smoked paprika and piquilo aioli

Fideuà is essentially paella made with pasta (thin short angel hair pasta) instead of rice. Fideuà has humble beginnings as a hearty dish used to feed poor fishermen on board fishing boats as a way of using up seafood they were unable to sell in the market that day.

Nowadays, it is a much more sophisticated dish using a variety of ingredients. This one particularly is cooked in squid ink with squid slices tossed into the mix, topped with lightly battered baby calamaris.

The noodle was kinda crispy, tasted like burnt rice. Definitely not the kind of paella with a saucy rich stock. I would have preferred a consistency leaning closer to one like the risotto. A noteworthy comment to add, a this is probably one of the most manageable paella I’ve seen in terms of size!